Measurement requires a certain degree of accuracy. Everything that is measurable has a beginning which in turn means it has an end. If there were no beginning or end then it could not be measured and certainly not with any degree of accuracy.
In the Beginning...
Time is an artificial construct that exists where there are constants. Without the rotation of the Earth and its revolutionary course around the Sun, how could we measure time, know our ages, or discern historical reference. Without an ability to gauge dimensional measurements such as distance or the existence of fixed points such as stars, time as we know it could not exist. Time is order and not chaos.
The ways we measure time are based on other factors outside of time. The measure of our life is dependent on the time that has been set into place at some distant point in the past. That point can be called "the beginning". What was there before a beginning? Chaos. Or perhaps we can say the non-existence of thinking reasoning minds. But then that becomes much like the proverbial tree falling in the forest where nobody is present. Does that tree make a sound? Does place without a reasoning being have time?
Day one. Year zero. In the beginning... That is when time begins.
What do you think? Does time exist if there is no one to measure it? Does time serve any benefit to anything beyond the reasoning mind that is desirous to organize its world?
As the saying goes "It's Not How You Start But How You Finish", so yes there has to be measurement to some extent.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Lee.
Yvonne.
Yvonne, I wonder if we'd be happier if we didn't think about time?
DeleteLee
Oh dear, I'm feeling the beast of time - albeit silent and invisible. 48 years ago today, my time began. I'm sure time visited in the night and gave me 48 new wrinkles and grey hairs :) Great, provocative post, Arlee. Have a great week.
ReplyDeleteNicola, shall I say then, "Happy Birthday"?
DeleteLee
Hi Lee - science is introducing us to so many concepts ... the beginning was aeons ago and out of our earthly space ... I don't think we'll ever know. We can sort ourselves out though! Cheers Hilary
ReplyDeletehttp://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/b-is-for-british-breeds-introduction.html
Hilary, I don't think we'll find out about the beginning for sure from human knowledge and research alone.
DeleteLee
Our "end" is not far off... but that is another matter... "Time" is a creation of man..
ReplyDelete.. lately Time (or lack there-of)has become more of a "bad" thing (for us)...
"B" is for a childhood favorite,... "Barnabas Collins"...!!
DeleteStacey, I used to come home from school and watch Dark Shadows. It was all the rage for a while back then.
DeleteLee
We loved Dark Shadows when we were kids.....too young and dumb to realize it was a soap opera and we had to wait "forever" until the vampire appeared again.....talk about dragging time!
DeleteZulu, it's kind of like the series shows now--so much filler that sometimes I'd rather condense the story into one movie and be done with it.
DeleteLee
Before the beginning of years
ReplyDeleteThere came to the making of man
Time, with a gift of tears;
Grief, with a glass that ran;
Pleasure, with pain for leaven;
Summer, with flowers that fell;
Remembrance, fallen from heaven,
And madness risen from hell;
Strength without hands to smite;
Love that endures for a breath;
Night, the shadow of light,
And life, the shadow of death. ~ Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)
Your post/question brought it to mind. A favourite.
Best wishes always,
Nilanjana
From Madly-in-Verse
Nilanjana, yes, that's an apt verse for my topic.
DeleteLee
Sounds like a conversation to be had over a glass of wine. Does time exist? Maybe but maybe it doesn't, it's just a construct to help our human mind cope with the limitless possibilities.
ReplyDeleteSandra, how could we cope in any organized fashion without time? We'd always be late, but then there would be no real concept of being late or early.
DeleteLee
I need some time to think about this! Assuming it exists of course! interesting.
ReplyDeleteToday in Amble Bay!
Keith, you could think on this a long time and never come up with any absolutely provable answer.
DeleteLee
In the beginning... There was only God.
ReplyDeleteAlex, God exists outside of human time, but He was there to start things off for us For God there is no beginning or end.
DeleteLee
I believe time was created as a measurement just for the understanding of humans. Universe - with it's past, present and future, was always present... we just came in later.
ReplyDeleteRajlakshmi, we thrive on time, but it also helps kill us.
DeleteLee
At a time when daylight savings has recently begun or ended in different parts of the world I have found myself wondering why humans bother messing with time. Sure it can be used as an effective measuring tool, but is it necessary to manipulate time to lengthen days in the summer when days are already naturally longer. Personally the jury is still out on whether there was a preverbial beginning I mean no-one was there to measure it and how will we know if it ever ends. Thanks for another thought provoking post Arlee and all the best for this years challenge. Reflex Reactions
ReplyDeleteIda, our lives would likely be a mess if we didn't abide to some sort of time measurement. Appointments and scheduling could not exist so we probably wouldn't get much done.
DeleteLee
I think that chaos began with man.
ReplyDeleteEve, I think it's only fair to put some blame on woman too! :)
DeleteLee
Such deep, philosophical discussions! ☺ The old adage 'Time waits for no one' comes to mind and the older I get the faster it seems to run! Everything has to have a beginning and an ending. but it's humankind who invented the measurement of same.
ReplyDeleteDebbie D, gotta wonder sometimes if we are trying to catch up with time or if it's chasing us. Or maybe it's all just one big infinite circle.
DeleteLee
We can never go back to make a new beginning, but we can choose to strive to make a new end. :-)
ReplyDeleteI believe that Time exists independent of Man. To say otherwise would be like saying length would not exist without Man.
In galaxies far distant, whose light is only now reaching us, suns burned before Man came on the scene. And their orbits around one another charted the moments just the same.
Nice post! :-)
Roland, but are not time, length, and all other measurement merely perceived by observations? If there is no one to perceive something, it may still exist, but not in the form that we perceive it. Or if we lived in some other dimension such as that of the soul or spirit, would the measurement of tangible objects and sensory perceptions matter in any way and therefore exist to that extra-dimensional being?
DeleteThis could make my head explode!
Lee
You make some interesting points Arlee. There are many ways that people can see time.
ReplyDeleteSheena-kay, time looks far different to a child than to a very elderly person. Much like the comparison of how a human would look to an ant versus an elephant. Perspective is the key to everything.
DeleteLee
I am sure that without people, the earth still revolved around the sun, just as our galaxy is revolving around the center of the universe. So time as the 4th dimension existed. Time as most of us think about for daily/annual purposes is a construct, without which we would probably still be hunting/gathering and living up to 30.
ReplyDeletePhillip | B is for banana
Phillip, but if there is no perception then the construct known as time would not exist to the planets, the sun, or any other inanimate object. Things would just happen without any regard to a time in which they are happening. Does a clock perceive time?
DeleteIf we all just lived in the now, struggling merely to survive, I wonder if humankind would have actually made it as far as we have? I think your final thought makes a lot of sense.
Lee
Interesting theme. I've had time on my mind lately since I never seem to have enough and yet have the same amount of time in a day as everyone else. When I remember to invest my time rather than spend it, then my time seems plentiful.
ReplyDeleteTrudy @ Reel Focus
Food in Film: Butter
Trudy, I invest time as wisely as I invest my money--not very. But I do think about time a lot and try to be better at using it wisely.
DeleteLee
Yep, all a concept made up from a start. But then what came before the start? And what came before that? And what came before that? Even if some say God, what came before him? Can go on and on and hurt the head lol
ReplyDeletePat, probably only so far worth going back to and I've got enough in my own lifetime to think about.
DeleteLee
Excellent post - a real thinker.
ReplyDeleteOf course there is time if no one was here and the measurement of time would be found in nature and the seasons - the sun rising and setting.
Debby, but does the sun rising and setting and other indicators actually determine time or is the determination of time the result of someone or some force actually measuring those indicators? The forces of nature operate without regard to what time it is don't you think? Sometimes I think to the detriment of my own thought processes.
DeleteLee
I find kind of an odd sense of pleasure in knowing that the truth of time, and reality, and the great beyond is so much for our little pea brains to comprehend that I don't think we'd ever understand the answers, even if we had them right in front of our faces. Hell, who's to say we don't right now?
ReplyDeleteABFTS, The answers frequently are right there in front of us, but often we either don't like what that answer is or it just seems too simple.
DeleteLee
Well, I think time would exist anyway, but because we're humans, we measure it. We always need to do things that makes us belive we are in control ;-)
ReplyDelete@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter - 1940s Film Noir
Sarah, I agree that if we're there then we'll measure time. Humans like to make sense of the world around them and that process involves a lot of measuring and comparisons.
DeleteLee
I always try to impress upon those that suffer a life-altering illness or injury that time can start over whenever they wish to do so. Just because you've ended one chapter of your life does not mean you can't begin another.
ReplyDelete@TupeakHope
Tupeak Hope
Tupeak, I'd agree with that. Life is filled with many beginnings to new chapters and we can be in more control than we often believe.
DeleteLee
Ah, your questions prompt me to share one of my all-time favorite quotes, as it always helps me sort it out!
ReplyDelete"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a nonlinear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff." --The Tenth Doctor (from Doctor Who) Tardis Quote Image
Jamie Lyn Weigt | Writing Dragons Blog | AtoZ 2017 - Dragons in Our Fandoms
Jamie, that quote kind of brings me back to an earlier post where this time conversation was beginning.
DeleteLee
I do think time is simply a way to organize activities. I think if we weren't within that constraint, we wouldn't like it.
ReplyDeleteJacqui, we probably wouldn't like it because little to nothing would ever get done and then we'd create some constraints to fix it.
DeleteLee
"Time is order and not chaos"- yet God is outside of time and space. Does this make Him chaos? Just wondering your thought there.
ReplyDeleteCW, I think more correctly we'd have to say that the absence of God is chaos. Satan is the author of chaos in order to confuse humans about the orderliness of God. God is not chaos in any way--just the opposite.
DeleteLee
I think of time as a convenient artificial construct - but I like to invite it to be my abundant resource when I have lots on my to-do list. :-)
ReplyDeleteDeborah, I couldn't get by very easily without time. I wish I could grow more in a garden or something.
DeleteLee
Great topic for the A-Z series, Arlee!
ReplyDeleteJust a curious thing about this year's series. It looks like the A-Z Blogging Challenge site is including Sundays...? That's when B appeared and C is up this evening!!
Susan, we are putting the letter posts up according to Greenwich time in order to accommodate bloggers on the other side of the world. A good many of the A to Z'er's are in India and they're like a day ahead of us in the U.S.
DeleteLee
Time did mean order to me until it began to pass too quickly to grasp and keep, or save. Now I savor moments as if they're the chocolates in a gilded box called time.
ReplyDeleteThere might not be so much chaos if time just wasn't measured at all, no expectations, no regrets or disappointments. Then I'd never be late for anything ;-)
Diedre, I too try to savor as much as I can these days. I try to never say I'm bored or wish away time to get to another day more quickly. Every second is an opportunity not to be squandered and yet I squander the heck out of a lot of them. Without time you would never be late, but you'd likely never do anything other then what happened randomly.
DeleteLee
Hey Arlee,
ReplyDeleteNice post. Time; an off-shoot of "Did God create man, or did man create God?" I often think about time and more and more have been thinking about truth, fact , and reality. I guess you can keep changing your theories, but like time, you have to pick a place to start; right or wrong and work from there....other wise we'll get dizzy and fall down.
Zulu, I think the God question is a valid one to ask and with much pondering I've settled on the God created humans side. There are a lot of deep subjects that are interesting and even fun to ponder. I tend not to change my theories as much as try to see them from different viewpoints and speculate on other possibilities. Usually there is only one that makes sense in the end, but the alternatives are partly what gives us imagination which is one of humankind's greatest gifts.
DeleteLee
Dude... are you trying to give me a headache? That's as bad as what came first the chicken or the egg. bwahahahaha Hubby & I came up with a concept for you that living here we are in hell and paying for the sins we've already committed so when we die from this world we'll all go to heaven because any thing has got to be better than this.... hahahahaha big hugs & have a great night.
ReplyDeleteMarie, if where we are now is hell then the consequences of sinning wouldn't be all that bad because I think this life is pretty good considering. Besides, it's not so much that the world or this life is bad, but it's bad and crazy people that make it bad. But, yeah, heavy topics can weigh down the brain and make you want to watch a cartoon or something.
DeleteLee
Arlee, you got so existential. Me, I wish I could keep time in a bottle!
ReplyDeleteH.R., when I write like this it's as though I've been hitting the bottle--or something.
DeleteLee
Time exists whether or not we notice it. It is a dimension just like the three dimensions we are familiar with, I think. My brother in law, whom I write about in my blog, has an almost flawless memory when it comes to time - he has a calendar in his mind and can tell you what happened on a certain day, or when holidays like Easter will occur on a year in the future. It's an amazing talent.
ReplyDeleteU.J.A.--I wish I could keep tracks of dates better. Sometimes I do well with details of past events or places I've been. Sometimes I just live like you said and don't notice any time. That never lasts for too long though. Even when I'm sleeping I'll wake up now and then to check on the time. It's nuts.
DeleteLee
It makes me dizzy to think about those kinds of philosophical questions. I also believe time will keep going even after the projected death of the Universe.
ReplyDeleteCarrie-Anne, I argue things like this in my head sometimes. It's a story that could go on forever I guess.
DeleteLee
Your question poses some deep and philosophical thinking. It's difficult to measure time but we keep trying but it keeps evading us in some way or another. I visited my mom yesterday( it was a special dinner and Elvis was supposed to be there.....your ears would have melted off from the horrendous singing of this mom and pop team who were horrible...horrendous actually) and time, with the people who suffer from dementia can't be measured. It seems to fit with what you write today
ReplyDeleteBirgit, I get what you're saying.
DeleteLee
Time, and the river, wasn't there a song? - all I know is that time is not static, it is eternal, yet keeps us bound within its' restraints. Thanks Arlee -
ReplyDeleteSusan S, that may be the song I used a couple of Band Battles back. There are probably a few songs using that analogy.
DeleteLee
Lee, yesterday somehow I missed coming over and I apologize. I guess I was trying to use my time in constructed fashion of responding to my commenters and then visiting that blogger afterwards but in the early hours I goofed and then my afternoon appointment. I'm sorry for the mishap in failing to use my time right. :( I think regardless if anyone measures time or not, we still have time. Perhaps we wouldn't know it as such but we it would be there. Even God refers to time when the Bible speaks of the creation of the world or how our time isn't the same as His, so it's there and speaking of time I think it's time to go have my morning coffee. Happy a2zing and thanks for hosting the brilliant fun!
ReplyDeleteEveryone is invited to hop over to visit my latest edition of #AprilA2Z Art Sketching Through the Alphabet with the letter “B” for boys.
Cathy, don't worry. I got real behind and am getting behinder. Time is for our benefit. God doesn't need to be concerned with time, but He has referred to it on occasion.
DeleteLee
Your question about 'time exisiting' reminds me of 'if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around does it make any noise?'
ReplyDeleteJoJo, that's the question that came to my mind as well.
DeleteLee
Well the Bible tells us God existed before any of our world and created it out of chaos. You can't get a more reasoning mind than God. But the Bible also tells us God does not measure time as we do.
ReplyDeletePerspectives at Life & Faith in Caneyhead
Barbara, God doesn't need to measure time, but I think he was aware that our mortality would make time an important factor in our lives.
DeleteLee
All I know is the beginning of every concert I go to is the best part for me. When the lights go out and the first strains of music start to play...magic.
ReplyDeleteJanet, that is a great time. Then there were lighters flicking on throughout the auditorium and a very distinctive smell. That's what I remember from concerts that I used to go to years ago.
DeleteLee
Fascinatingly philosophical. I think of dogs and cats who don't know what time is but they still have a sense of when they're hungry and when it's time to visit the litter box or ask for a walk. They really know what living in the moment is and in that sense experience timelessness, don't they?
ReplyDeleteKalpanaa, animals seem to have a certain sense of schedule or maybe they have an awareness of what humans are doing on their schedule and are able to respond in the moment because they aren't doing anything else more important. I've observed animal behavior and wondered about this.
DeleteLee
Hi Arlee, I'm trying to post again, after a few failed attempts of commenting on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI love your perspective on time and I recently wrote about it in a travel tale for AtoZ which I'm linking up below. When I think of time I reminisce back to Pink Floyd's lyrics
"Time"
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand 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
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 quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say
Natasha
natashamusing
Travel Epiphanies:
Boisterous Fruit Bats
Natasha, sorry you had commenting problems. Not sure why. That Pink Floyd album is such a great one. I guess that song expresses what many young people feel at times though it doesn't fit the way I see things anymore.
DeleteLee
In the beginning...That's where our individual journeys really start. The end is the culmination of all that...But I'm not in a hurry to see that, he he...
ReplyDeleteMy B post: “How do you personally deal with writer’s block?”
JGIF, Gotta start somewhere and the beginning is a good place to start.
DeleteLee
Time exists, it is measured in ringlets in a tree stump for example. However, the importance of it is more man made.
ReplyDeleteMike, the tree rings certainly denote some kind of cycles that we can relate to time, but I think they measure environmental conditions more than time. But I don't really know for sure and that is a good point.
DeleteLee