On Time At this point in the year, the majority of us are fully immersed in work, study, and school, and probably, many of us are obsessing over our lack of time. What is this thing we need so much of and desire so ardently? What is time? One way in is to explore the scientific concept of time as a dimension of the universe we live in. Another is the initial definition given in the Oxford English Dictionary: “A finite extent of continued existence, e.g., the interval between two events.” These may not have much practical meaning for us: it is much easier to explore all the different ways in which time is measuredinstead, but then we quickly come up against a problem. In The Hobbit it is a thing which “all things devours”; Goya painted a visceral picture of Saturn, or Cronus, eating his child; and Isaiah says, “all flesh is as grass.” It would appear that far from us measuring time, time measures us. Time forces us to confront our own mortality, and an examination of what takes up our daily and weekly time will reveal some uncomfortable truths. For those who need a lot of rest, how fragile their bodies and minds really are; for those who care for others, how little of their own life they may mayhave; for those who like to do a lot, how little of the doing may be necessary or beneficial. Time also throws up our insignificance: TS Eliot’s attendant lord Prufrock measures out his life in coffee spoons. Fortunately for us, this isn’t quite the sum of time. Ecclesiastes re-assures us that there is a time for everything. In the Gospels, Jesus turns the pressure of time inside out by placing new urgency and energy onto the immediate present, and offers the goodness and love of God, here, now. MaryOliver, who died two weeks ago, reminds us in her poem Hurricane that “for some things/there are no wrong seasons”. But above all, time does not have the final say. Underneath the desire for time is the desire for a deeper experience of life. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “ask, and it will be given you.” He goes onto ask who, if asked for bread, would give a stone. God is eternal, beyond time, and the abundant giver of goodness, grace, love and life. We may find, even as we come to terms with our lives’ inescapable brevity, if we ask for more time, that we are given immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.
Alice Willington |
