Time does not exist!
That was how the History Theory teacher started his first class, in the first semester of History in college .
Time is a fixed element, we are the ones who move around it.
Earth's spacetime, Einstein said, can be warped, or even twisted by the rotation of other planets: time is relative.
Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli explains that time is faster at the top of a mountain, and slower at sea level. Time!
Those who, like me, live with cats and watch them, maybe like me, sometimes wonder if cats notice time passing by, and if they do, does it makes any difference for them? My guess is that they neither notice nor care, given the time they spend sleeping, very pleased with their way of life.
Time, an endless flow, a river where we are launched at the moment we become aware of our existence and which we don't know if we will ever leave. Because it’s probably impossible to imagine existence without time. It’s the tick of the clock and the little square marks on calendars that determines the swing of our lives. We have long since distanced ourselves from the clues nature gives us to guide ourselves. And even in nature, the cycles are repeated, whereas in our calendars each cycle is increased by one year, and one year is different from the other, which distances us more and more from the past. We are constantly referring to events that took place in the year such or such, celebrating centenaries, decades and even reserving bottles of wine for this or that "special" year.
But lately, "the time has been strange". For those who are in confinement, time is long, or is being wasted. Time is money. Time is a present. The time of the elders that seems to drag on, but is precious - is confronted with the time of youth, eager to keep going with, because they have “all the time in the world”
Interestingly, it is the current time that counts. It is the vertical time, the now, immediately. We ignore this stretched line that connects humans from all ages, past and future, becoming essentially concerned with the present time. We ignore the difficulties that our ancestors faced, similar to what we now experience, but with much less recourse at the time. But we also ignore how those who come after us will face this kind of problem.
We managed to conceptualize the idea of infinity, but we are unable to imagine what is something that never ends (if I tell you that a type of lottery in the United States, the Powerball, has already awarded only three people with 1.586 billion dollars, can you imagine what does it means in financial terms?), and this seems to create a paradox: we cannot imagine the end of time, the before and the after, because they are too distant rom us, and for this very reason we cling to the “present time”.
24/24h retained in our homes; and even those who have to leave for work, 24/24 restrained to a limited travel circuit. Some desperately attached themselves to directives dates, believing in a magical calendar in which, on a precise, announced day, everything will be as it was before, anxious for the control of time.
But the fact is that the days are now repeating themselves following the rhythm of nature, as it seems that the calendars have lost their meaning a bit, since nobody knows what will come in the next weeks or months, even less the next two years. What now makes sense as hours go by is the sunrise and sunset, the leaves on the trees, which birds are singing and the weather outside. Those who have a newborn baby at home can watch, tenderly amazed, I hope - the astonish evolution that happens from one day to the next.
I wonder if this traumatic event will cause any kind of rupture or if, once the definitive treatment or the long awaited vaccine is announced, we will return to the calendars. Perhaps this depends on our ability to appreciate the lifetime. And even that appreciation depends on what time makes of us. For those who have lost loved ones, who are alone, who work today to pay for yesterday's bread, it may be that the time that remains is indifferent or painful. But for those who have everything they cherish - family and friends close by, a generous table, health up to date - this may be the chance to no longer feel swept away by the river of time, but to let yourself be absorbed by it, flow with what time offers. Perhaps then, when we and time are one, its concept will no longer make difference and it will cease to exist, Time, and we will then be free from the fear of losing it.