The March of Time

It’s the time of year to think about, well, time. And for Steve McMoyler it just keeps marching on.

I’m being prodded in the back by a spear. I feel the sharp point, the sharp pain. The prodding makes me continue my march onward. Because it’s now the year 2020, for god’s sake, and Time wields the spear. 2020? Wait! How the heck could – when did — ?

Arrgh.

Time is so… implacable. It’s paradoxical. For example, it represents change – it is change, yet is itself unchanging.

None of our five senses experience time, yet it affects us more than anything we do sense. Time is linked to everything we do, woven into every life. Its passage is life.

So sometimes, I picture time like a Roman soldier with a spear, silently prodding me to keep walking. I see something and I want to pause, maybe smell the roses. But no! Time pokes me in the butt with the spear. So I keep marching. 2018. 2019, 2020. It’s not fair.

I know the spear is there, and I know what a spear can do to a life. I turn and bargain with the Roman soldier, asking for a break. I even refrain from making fun of that stupid brush thing on the top of his helmet. But I just see his eyes blink through the iron mask, and then up comes the spear.

Ow!

But the good news, and the true news, is that time is elastic. It's malleable. You know how an unfortunate minute can seem like an hour, or a great year can go by like a month? That’s on us.

Because like so many things, for us, time isn’t absolute. Our experience of time, one’s attitude can stretch or compress moments, and alter the tempo of life. So time can be as much a companion as a threat. There is no soldier with a spear. We can stop and smell the roses.

So Happy New Year, everyone. Enjoy the moment, however long that moment is.

With a perspective, I'm Steve McMoyler.

Steve McMoyler works in technology.