The Art of Time

[Paradox]

These quotes are from a book I'm reading titled The Art of Time. Thought they were interesting and wanted your thoughts on them.


Time-chopping spares nothing and most of all not love. Love is not stated; it is proven by time spent. Working mothers count the hours spent with their children, either to reassure themselves or to feel guilty. Friendships also require an investment of time. As for romanitc love, it is a plant that must be watered with hours and days of intimacy.

Alas, romantic love also wastes away for lack of nourishment. Courting means using outmoded circumlocutions- and patience. Maintaining a relationship demands an investment of time whose productivity is no longer assured.

We have come to believe that love happens right away or not at all.

Today lovers spend more time on the telephone than in bed.

If conjugal fidelity is on the rise, it may be more as a result of the pace of life than of changing morality.


Thanks to this king of time-destroyers (cellular phone), anyone can interrupt a crucial negotiation, a family meal, a moment of creative reflection or worship, your sleep, your shower, your moments of tenderness or of private enjoyment at the theater or concert hall... That is, if you wish so, because luckily voice mail was developed almost simultaneously. Many have learned to use these fashionable tools... in order to make themselves inaccessible.

In the growing battle for control of our time, the mobile telephone has become for all of us what the Kalashnikov is for a terrorist: an indispensable weapon of attack or of defense.

(emphasis in original text)

That part about the Kalashnikovs was quite amusing to me. :lol:


Because of our stressed approach to time we do nothing thoroughly in order to do more. Impatient and therefore superficial, we avoid asking profound questions. And when we must answer our own legitimate preoccupations concerning our motives or our way of life, we call that an existential crisis.

Thoughts?

[Clarksist]

That's pretty fucken interesting.

Time always bothers me. Because I can't decide if I think that it is a sure flowing stream, or just a creation of man.

[coda]

What I have experienced from time is that every decade of a person's life speeds up atleast two-fold, independent of activity.

[Paradox]

Here's another interesting passage I came across last night:


The constraints of time, at least those imposed from the outside, are learned in school, the family, and... from television.

Obligatory schedules (including punishments or excuses), hour-long classes, changes in programs because of the days of the week, waiting for weekends and vacations, all that we learn in school.

We inherit from our family whether we wake up by ourselves or with the help of others, whether we schedule mealtimes or not, whether or not we leave the house at the last minute. Add to that, of course, plans for the afternoon or evening for our favorite and/or permitted television programs.

This amalgam constitutes a quite substantial restraint. If you throw in some sports practice on Wednesday afternoon and one or two rehearsals, our stressed children will have every reason to view any rigid schedule with horror. And those who conform willingly to such a tempo should even cause us some concern.

Just as a premature interest in theology yields future agnostics, a tyrannic schedule imposed on ten-year-olds runs the risk of making them rebel against the least hint of personal organization.

(emphasis added)

The parts in bold were of particular interest to me. What are your opinions about what he is suggesting?

I was also wondering your thoughts on the effects of Communism on the perception of time. People would work much fewer hours and therefore have much more leisure time, time measured in minutes, hours, days, etc.. But what about our perception of time? You know like how when you're doing something you don't like, an hour can seem like forever? Or when you're doing something you enjoy, the day seems to "fly by?" Do you think Communism will have an effect on that? Will it seem like we're "living longer," even though actual measured time remains the same?

[coda]

Good stuff Paradox,

I got rid of all my clocks about 5 years ago.. so I don't measure time anymore. The only clock I have is the one on my computer. I tell time by the sky and usually hit it within 2 hours or so,....... depends on the weather.


Time - Pink Floyd


Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in a quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

{.....}

[stitch]

gj with the pink floyd reference

now.. am I to think the man is suggesting that imposing a rigid schedule on young children actually causes them to grow up to be more unorganized?
his logic and deductions are brilliant. Link me to a place where I can purchace the book if you would.

[Seeker]

It sounds more like the time constraints of the Modern World have reached a breaking point. It is not so much any one thing, but there are so many things.

Sometimes I think the hermits know somthing the rest of us dont.

[Patchy]

I view time as a constant moving stream, in the sense that no matter what we do, the cells of every living thing on this planet will continue to grow, die, and decompose, only to start all over again. Things will always change, both naturally and from human interaction (Or interference if you will).

The idea of time however, is man made.You need to be here at this time and must be back by this time, blah blah, everything has a timeframe. I prefer using the sky as a guide, but I also have clocks in my house, mostly because I still live with my parents.

But then, I like to be abstract and farfetched. Lets say time is a sentient being, using us as entertainment. Sometimes it winds back and around itself, giving any effected a sense of Deja Vu, a feeling that they know this person like they've known them their entire life, yet they cant remember.

[guerillablack]

So you think by getting rid of the clocks in your house, time doesn't exist anymore?

....

[slim]

Getting rid of time would destroy the world's food supply. Farmers have to get up before sunlight to get the work done ready for the next day. Failure of crop production could mean massive famine.