i should be blogging about the four weeks i spent in europe this summer, or my trip to okinawa, or my plans for the future, or my job. time is moving a little too fast for me to keep up with these days. i'll talk about all that stuff later, probably. in the interim, i give you this:
...
remember how a year (or even a month) felt like a really long time when you were a little kid? and maybe your mother told you, "time goes by really fast when you grow up," and you tried to imagine a future like that but it was just outside your grasp?
and somewhere in early high school, maybe, you thought back on that moment and realized you were finally beginning to starting to understand what she was talking about.
and now the seasons come in quick succession--winter arrives on the heels of the previous winter. all the events that occurred in the intervening spring-summer-fall notwithstanding, you clearly remember coming home from work in december, the feel of thick acyrlic socks over long underwear, how you felt that moment at the airport in january. "like it was yesterday."
so you wonder, what would the eight-year-old you say if you told her "in the twenty-seventh year of your life, you will spend more time on airplanes that you did in the previous twenty-six years combined"?
where are we going?, perhaps.
good question, kid.
here's the thing. you know that "when-you-grow-up" that people are always talking about? you remember--uncle rodger said you'd be a heartbreaker then, and you laughed at him? anyway, there isn't a magical "when-you-grow-up" line in time where everything changes and you suddenly become what you're going to be for the rest of your life.
time just goes faster, that's all.
we'll get where we're going. and then we'll go to the next place.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)

1 comment:
I know precisely what you mean about the slippage (as opposed to passage) of time. It runs through our fingers like mercury.
Last night, I went to bed a child dreaming of becoming a fighter pilot and an astronomer and a paleontologist. This morning, I woke up a 45-year-old man.
Yes, time slips through our fingers, as you've observed. But if you chase your dreams -- and the pursuit is more important than the conquest -- then you've scored a victory over time. You will have achieved a very rare thing: The blessing of looking back over your life with few, if any, regrets.
Post a Comment