Just a Second.

Time is a dimension, but it’s a lot weirder than that. It’s relative, too. And, from our human perspective, really confusing. It doesn’t matter whether one considers it in a grand geologic sense, as in, was it the Big Bang that made the dinosaurs deaf, or in a more immediate context, like, is the toast burning.

They’re always telling us that time is elusive. I mention this, not just because last week it was my birthday, though that doesn’t help, but, because every time you try to pin it down, it has moved ahead.

Memory doesn’t help. Remember that time you fell in love and everything got complicated? That may seem like only yesterday, but it was twenty years ago. No, twenty-three! Those prescriptive drugs in the cabinet aren’t from last summer, they’re four and a half years old. Your kids really don’t live with you any more. And, you really are more mature, more responsible, and older than you think.

When middle age occurs, it’s easy to lose track. There are so many memories, so much experience, so many important things you have to do, that living in the moment seems not just a spiritual imperative, but a huge relief.

At my house, time and its mechanical representatives are everywhere. The DVD player is always blinking 12:00 am. The cable box. The oven. Up in the corner of the computer. My alarm clock. Even, the phone! I have to say, upon consideration, there’s another, deeper meaning to that alarm clock, than I once thought.

The real problem is that each of these timepieces tells a different story. My bedside clock is ten minutes fast. The one in the bathroom, twenty minutes. The oven clock runs slow. The DVD never changes and, without making a phone call, the only one I can really trust is in the car. There are reasons for these variations, but, right now, I can’t remember what they are. I don’t wear a watch, because they make me nervous. It would probably be inaccurate, anyway.

It seems as if all these clocks are trying to tell me something. As if, Time had a message. But it’s a lot more impersonal that that. It’s a force we must reckon with. It moves in only one direction. The great sages of the ages have always advocated living in the present and only the present. That’s good enough for me. I’m going to join them, before it’s too late.