Beyond Clocks and Calendars

Jigsaw puzzle season is here again. Winter holidays are over; balmy days lie too far ahead to lure me outdoors. Between sessions at the puzzle table, I read the next chapter in my current mystery novel. Add bits of writing, exercise, housework, and human contact, and my day is complete. I have no wish to make time for more.

Philosophers debate the meaning of time. I’ll avoid that fray. For me its meaning varies among (1) the time of the natural world: day and night, summer and winter, new moon and full; (2) the time humans invented to coordinate plans and records: clock hours, calendar weeks, the date one year ends and the next begins; and (3) the time we experience: what flies when we’re having fun and drags when we’re bored.

The Industrial Revolution pushed culture from the seasonal rhythms of farming toward the mechanical rhythms of clocks and calendars. Factories could operate year-round. Electricity freed assembly lines and offices from having to close at dusk. The seasons of most American jobs rest less on climate or daylight than on holiday shopping, tax time, or annual meetings.

​Before retirement, I lived largely by clocks and calendars. Now I feel closer to the rhythms of nature. Countless plants and animals take winter to rest and regroup, without apology. Why not humans? The warmer, longer days will cycle back soon enough, with no prodding from us.