Yesterday I posted about my newest musical release ‘born to run’, an energetic, electronic EP produced on the Elektron Digitakt. If you haven’t heard it and are interested in doing so, you can check out yesterday’s post (DAY 33). I would really appreciate you taking the time to listen to it.
Today we are continuing the topic we last explored on DAY 32, that of our limited time on this earth, and of what could possibly be the correct way to make use of that time, if there even is a right way at all. We often take time for granted, and I can totally understand why. The easiest things to take for granted are the things that are always with us, that are always around. We get used to these familiar things to the point that our minds don’t even consciously register them anymore, they are just automatically experienced without being acknowledged. This is useful when it comes to everyday living because, as we become more and more accustomed to the norms of our reality, we are able to navigate it more efficiently in the future. If our reaction to any given stimulus was always the same as when we first experienced or encountered it, we would waste a lot of time being amazed by things that should no longer surprise us, because of practice and/or repeated exposure.
Having already acknowledged the undeniable utility of our brains being built in such a way, there is now something that must be said for remembering to remain aware of the side effects that accompany such a phenomenon. As we become more and more accustomed to our reality, we start to subconsciously expect things to remain the same. The problem is that life and the world are in constant change, and as soon as we feel like we’re completely comfortable with the way things are, everything could quickly and unexpectedly change. Time is easy to take for granted precisely because it’s always there. There is no part of our day-to-day experience that happens outside of time. We know that we did a certain thing last week, we know we are doing something else right now, and in our heads, we are already planning what we will eat for dinner tonight, or what we’ll do for fun next weekend. Everything makes sense within the seconds and minutes, within the hours and days, of our lives. Everything is in its right place, like the Radiohead song, we are just filling up the spaces of our time. Everything happens within time, everything is intertwined with time, and therefore we become desensitized to time. We live our lives, often ignoring the fact that time is constantly passing by, that time is limited. We really don’t know how much time we have left, but we do feel that time is always there.
We wake up and we are in time, we make plans and we are in time. Time is always going on, just like life is, and it’s all we know, so there’s no need to question it. It’s the most familiar of all familiar things. The problem is that, like everything else, it will change. A disease could drastically shorten the amount of time you have left. One thing is to confront the idea that “one day” time will end for you, that “time is limited,” while feeling like it never ends, like it’s always there when you need it. It’s another thing entirely to come face to face with death, with a specific timeframe, with the news that you have X number of months, or even weeks or days, to live. Suddenly, everything that was so normal and commonplace to you becomes imbued with an inescapable sense of meaning, with a sacred quality that permeates all that is. Everything, absolutely everything, is affected because, once again, everything is in time. Time is all that matters, yet we barely understand it, and there are many who go as far as calling it an illusion. Well, I can see where they’re coming from, and I even refer to time as an illusion at times as well. So, is time the ultimate reality, or is it the ultimate illusion then? You might answer with the former or the latter, or you might think it’s a bit of both. Whatever the answer that comes to your mind, I know you can appreciate the complexity of such a question, and why we will have to give it some more thought in order to continue the idea tomorrow.
If you have a few minutes check out my track ‘born to run’. I appreciate you!
rebel eye 