The Passage of Time

 

“Dad, will you explain the theory of relativity to me?”  The first grader asked his dad.  “I don’t understand why time goes slower at great speed.”

Calvin’s dad stroked his chin thoughtfully.  “Well, Son, it’s because you keep changing time zones.  See, if you fly to California you gain three hours on a five-hour flight, right?

Calvin nodded.  So far all of this was making sense.  “So, if you go at the speed of light, you gain more time because it doesn’t take you as long to get there.  Of course, the theory of relativity only works if you are going west.”

“Wow, that’s not what Mom said at ALL!  She must be totally off her rocker,”  Calvin was shocked.

“Well, we men are better at abstract reasoning.  You go tell her that,” Calvin’s dad said smugly.

Of course, this conversation only happened in the mind of the cartoonist Bill Watterson, creator of the Calvin and Hobbes strip that ran for ten short years between 1985 and 1995.  I remember as a boy getting the newspaper and turning first to the comics to see what funny things Calvin was doing – cloning himself, making a transmogrifier, or imaging himself as Spaceman Spiff. 

It is hard to believe that it has been thirty years since Calvin and Hobbes went away.  Not exactly a blink of an eye fast, but it certainly doesn't feel like three decades ago either.

The passage of time is something that Calvin didn’t understand and not even Calvin’s dad, with all of his brilliance could truly explain.  Einstein’s theories may tell us about what time is and what happens to it when you go close to the speed of light, but it doesn’t really tell us about how humans experience time.

It seems like a brief minute ago that our oldest daughter graduated from high school, in May of this year, and we launched out into a summer full of activities and gardening and adventure.  Now, with the speed of a Formula 1 racecar entering the finall lap, it has ended and we are back to packing lunches and alarm clocks and heading off to class.

Psalms 90:10-12 is from a psalm attributed to Moses.  It says, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.  Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.  So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Time does go by quickly, whether you are having fun or not.  The call is for each one of us to “number our days.”  We are to use our time wisely so that at the end of each minute and hour, we can feel good about what we have purchased with that time.

The challenge is not understanding how time works, but how to better use the time we are given.  For, each one of us has just twenty-four hours each day to do good, even if we are not a master of abstract reasoning, like Calvin’s dad is.