This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Four Score and Seven Beards Ago
Four Score and Seven Beards Ago
By
Cognitive Dissonance
You will always find original articles by Cognitive Dissonance and other authors first on www.TwoIceFloes.com before they are posted here on ZH.
To become a Premium or Basic member click here. If you wish to subscribe to ‘Dispatches’, a periodic newsletter from Cognitive Dissonance and TwoIceFloes Creations, please click here.
Within a few weeks of moving to the mountain in June of 2013 Mrs. Cog and I found ourselves in the one and only bank within 10 miles of our new place opening a checking account in order to conduct (local) financial business as needed. The manager, a pleasant woman married to the realtor who sold us our place, helpfully informed us the locals were all on ‘Mountain Time’, meaning things got done when they got done and not necessarily when we thought they should get done.
I was familiar with the term, or more accurately the concept, since several decades earlier I had been married (briefly I might add) to a young woman who had spent most of her formative years on a Caribbean island. Yes, my ex-wife operated on ‘Island Time’, which for her meant if it was going to get done it would eventually get done, though not necessarily by her. It was her one redeeming quality.
To be fair, with the benefit of 30 years of additional maturity under my belt and the desire to remove myself from the daily grind of the consumer rat race, Mountain Time didn’t sound all that bad, particularly if it came with a southern drawl and the opportunity to shoot the shit down at the local country store/auto repair shop. While there was no way this Yankee would ever be able to discard his New England accent, I am a people person and most acquaintances wind up liking me, though I suspect many have no idea why.
Having just relocated from the Northern Virginia/DC area, where the consumer power knob goes all the way to eleven on a one to ten scale, the manager cast us a dubious look when we both nodded our approval of Mountain Time, then once again welcomed us to her bank as we were ushered out the door. It only took 80 minutes to open one joint checking account so I thought we had successfully begun our acclamation.
I remember reading a long time ago that man took his first step from savage to civilized when he began to master time. Even back then I wondered who (or what) mastered who in that competition because it seemed to me by the time I was five and had entered first grade I was in sync with Father Time and not Mother Earth. But the idea I might just be able to ignore the clocks up here on the mountain after 50 plus years of running in place was decidedly appealing.
Of course for the most part the idea of living time free is more fantasy than fact, at least for us. There are still clocks in nearly every room in our home and on many appliances as well as on every computer, laptop, cell phone and motor vehicle in our possession. Since there are occasions when we must interact with various businesses and professionals in the area, we must at least be aware what time it is in order to function. In addition, considering we run a website with international membership, in some respects we must think globally with regard to time, not just locally.
All in all though, time and the clock do not dominate my life to the extent it did less than a year and a half ago. I suspect what I am experiencing is a less regimented life more than one disconnected from time. Working a nine to five job requires nearly every other aspect of our lives to be in sync with the primary activity of the day, that of work. And for the vast majority of “We the People” working is no longer as much about subsistence as it is debt service.
It has taken us well over a year to extinguish most (but not all) of our debt and thus our debt service obligations, allowing us to substantially lower our income needs as the outgo also diminishes. While we are still net negative income wise, the gap is narrowing and our happiness index is through the roof. In so many small ways our prior lives were lived to service our past (our debt) rather than living in the present.
However when I take a closer look at our expenses I realize even though we have been here more than a year we are still knee deep in projects to improve our home, outbuildings and the homestead grounds. This means that while the major projects have been budgeted as capital expenses, many of the small outlays for those projects tend to fall under ‘household’ expenses against income rather than ‘project’ expenses against capital. With the major improvements nearly complete I suspect our income needs will continue to decline.
But while my life is much less regimented it is by no means sedentary. Between the high maintenance log cabin and log outbuildings, the large garden area, maintenance of old logging roads and general grounds as well as special features unique to our place, at a minimum several hours a day are devoted to its upkeep. On the rare occasion when I complain to Mrs. Cog of the unrelenting daily demand on me Mrs. Cog sweetly reminds me I am working for myself rather than the man. I think of it as working for Mother Nature, the ultimate authority and taskmaster.

We arrogant humans have a bizarre relationship with time, bolding declaring we have mastered it while clearly subservient to its every whim. We obsessively measure it while chopping it up into ever smaller increments so our cell phones work and our nuclear plants operate………if they aren’t presently melting down in the ultimate Mother Nature middle finger to humans and our vaunted technological miracles.
On the other side of the ledger we stack increments of time on top of each other in enormous quantities in an entirely futile effort to mentally grasp large passages of time. Declaring something happened two thousand years ago when the scale of reference is our present age is as meaningless to us as stating the 2015 US government budget is $3.9 trillion dollars when our income for this year is less than $30,000. I have trouble thinking in terms of weeks and months and yet I’m expected to comprehend the volume of time that has passed since Christ was said to have walked the Earth? I don’t think so.
While we are assured by the experts that time is precisely measured based upon other ‘known’ phenomenon such as the decay rate of some radioactive material or the vibration of an atom, ultimately time is based upon perception and perspective. I have read some very interesting articles over the years where time was described as a construct of the mind and consciousness. Without the conscious observer present, there is no ‘time’ to speak of.
When I was much younger and still riding motorcycles, some idiot pulled out in front of me and then stopped in confusion and panic when he realized he wasn’t going to clear me in time. For my part I was travelling over 50 mph and was less than one hundred feet away from his stopped vehicle. There simply was not enough ‘time’ nor space to stop. Somehow over the next few seconds time slowed down for me to such a degree that I was able to plan out, then quickly maneuver the motorcycle first to one side, then the other and avoid hitting the negligent driver. A witness told me he had never seen anything like it in his life. Sparks were flying everywhere and the noise was terrible.
After the fact, when for me time had resumed ‘normal’ speed, I was astounded by what I had just done and was never able to repeat anything close to the maneuver that had saved my life. I had essentially laid the bike down first on one side, then the other in order to maneuver around the stopped car. And in the process I had ground down the foot pegs on either side as well as some of each exhaust. Plus the soles of my boots were now gone, ground away to nothing but a tiny stub for a heel and holes at the ball of the foot. I have heard several ‘expert’ explanations for what happened to other people in similar situations and it still all boils down to perception and perspective.
Similarly, anyone waiting for water to boil or attending a boring lecture knows how agonizingly slow time passes when you’re not having fun. On the flip side, engage in an activity that is new, exciting or fascinating and watch how quickly time flies by. How many times have you checked your watch or wall clock and been amazed by how late it was or how much ‘time’ had passed when you weren’t paying attention or were occupied? Another person in the same room doing the same thing may be experiencing exactly the opposite effect. But aren’t we all sharing the same ‘time’?
Much smarter and more imaginative people than I will claim I do this subject a disservice and I would not disagree. This is not a dissertation by any stretch of the imagination, but simple observations of a change in my perception and perspective. In fact it meshes nicely with the theme of our Two Ice Floes website, where we continue to navigate life with one foot still firmly within the Matrix while carefully attempting to place the other foot outside to the fullest extent possible. It is with this thought in mind that I have been observing myself and my reactions to this ongoing experiment in duality.
Our technological culture seems to place us firmly in conflict with time itself. The rush to cram as much as possible into as small a slice of time as we can seems to be the holy grail these days, and the pace is accelerating exponentially. While for now it is limited to external (to the human body) technology applications, I fully expect it to progress to internal computer chip implantations and drug induced time warping. The critical question is not can we do this or when will we be able to do this, but why would we want to do this. As my mother was prone to say, “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.” I agree mom.
As I have slowly withdrawn from the rat race my perspective and perception of time has gradually morphed into something I didn’t quite expect. I must still be mindful of what day of the week it is as well as the actual calendar date for a multitude of reasons. But I pay attention to this only for the purpose of meshing with the Matrix rather than to be engulfed by, or subservient to, the demands of the Matrix.

My days are still very full, even though Mrs. Cog calls me ‘semi’ retired. In fact I would say in many respects my days are more demanding than when I was working a traditional 9 to 5 ‘job’. The difference is in the work flow and time critical situations. Here on the mountain, while I arise at the same time I always have, there is no rush to hit the bathroom to shower and shave, then hit the car to begin the commute that begins the daily dance with time.
Nowadays, while I might have the day planned out with regard to what I wish to accomplish, there is no strict order or process I must follow unless others are involved. Basically I do what I want when I want and purposely inject flexibility into my daily routines. I still have the same ‘work ethic’ and can be disappointed by a lack of progress on a project. But this is mostly because I still plan my projects with a 30 year old mind that happens to reside within a 58 year old body. The mind is strong, the flesh a bit weaker.
Overall I am more relaxed while doing equal or greater amounts of work than when I was a slave to the clock. This is not to say I don’t feel time pressures. As the season changed to autumn I tackled the last major project of the year, the sealing of our log cabin and outbuildings as well as caulking the log checks and cracks.
Within days I realized the logs were in much worse condition than I had assessed and the time I had allotted for the project tripled with the weather quickly getting colder. My back was against the wall time wise and now I was once again a slave to the clock. I did not like the personality/emotional change I experienced, with my anxiety level suddenly increased as I watched the weather reports for dry warmer days to continue the work. ‘Time’ was no longer on my side, or so I imagined.
However, another thought just occurred to me. I am much more attuned to Mother Nature and her cycles now that I spend several hours or more a day (and night) outside on chores, projects or just fun puttering around. Not only am I more sensitive to changes in the weather, but also the length of daylight as the seasons change. Like a squirrel frantically searching for nuts as winter closes in, I suspect I ‘sensed’ the end of the maintenance season was fast approaching and with the sealing project now greatly extended, like the squirrel I became a bit frenzied.
I did not wish to do a half assed job, which would have been the case if I had tried to use the water based sealant and caulk in cold wet weather. The bottom line though was simple. While I do watch the clock and the calendar, I can (and mostly do) choose to live my life by my own inner sense of time and priorities rather than an externally imposed timepiece. So it was extremely amusing for me to realize that over the last few months I had developed my own unique measure of time.
While previously working the nine to five life, for the most part I shaved on a daily basis. One of the small pleasures of life for me is no longer feeling the need to scrape my face daily with a sharp blade. Thankfully Mrs. Cog does not mind Mr. Cog in a beard, so there has been no resistance to a shaggy Cog. But I do not like full beards so after nine or ten days of growth I pull out the razor and shave away.
The other day I found myself thinking about a small project I had finished and I was trying to remember how far back it was. Try as I might I was uncertain how many weeks/months had transpired. Suddenly I thought about how many times I had shaved since the project was finished. The answer was three and a half….or three shaves times ten days on average between shaves plus another five days or a total of thirty five days……a little more than a month ago.
I laughed out loud at the silliness of it all, not to mention the originality of my discovery….at least for me. I have no doubt that for thousands of years man (and his beard) have discovered and created unique and interesting ways to measure increments of time and its passage. I guess what surprised me was how the idea just seemed to materialize as complete and fully accepted with little to no deliberate thought on my part about the process and application.
Usually by day eight or nine I begin to feel the beard is becoming too long. By day ten it is obvious to me I need to shave. If it goes to day eleven or twelve it has crossed over the line to become a full fledged irritant and now I am itching (pun intended) to hack the facial hair off with any sharp implement available. I suspect my beard will be a fairly reliable time piece for me as we continue our adventures up here on the mountain.
11-09-2014
Cognitive Dissonance
Pieces of Time

- advertisements -


man excels at nothing more than spoiling
a perfectly good moment.
I bet daylight savings really messes with your sidereal clock.
And it supposedly was for farmers, originally.
BTW, get yourself an electric beard groomer. Then you can start back at day 2 repeatedly.
It was interesting. Normally it would take me a day or two to make the change in either direction, but this year as I became more attuned with the Earth and my inner 'time' I was rocked for nearly a week.
Never even considered a beard groomer. I am now.
As a project manager on multiple projects, I had a saying I would use with the crew, "The time required by the schedule is always right, but our guess about it might be right or wrong."
cog- age, motorcdycles, addiction, ect. ect. luv reading a mirror image of my life only south of me. you stashed more nuts, but just an observation as measure of happiness is non-monetary.
just got back from northern deer hunt and been bout 7 days since da edge cut. ha, so funny-lol.
thanks for your mussings
(just another cog)
Even those not living on a Mountain can experience this a bit. Just take 1 week off work and put down your wrist watch, don't plan anything just go with your instincts. I discovered that my (natural)"daily" patterns look completely different than what I am forced to endure while "working". I tented to go to sleep late at night like 2 or 3 am, than wake up at around 10-11 go about for a few hours than go back to bed at around 16-17 rest for ~3h than wake up again.
So my day was never a straight wake/sleep routine but a irregular pattern of resting and going about as I saw fit, depending of what I was doing at any given moment. I could stretch my day to 16h or go early to rest in anticipation of the next day.
It was completely Liberating! I felt great, only it lasted too short, 1 week is barely enough to get back your "natural rhythm". But this experience made me plan for an early "retirement" I don't want to be bound by clocks and schedules, I Want to be Free!
Ever since early childhood (Kindergarten) we are forced to wake up to the most annoying sound of buzzers or forcefully torn out of bed by our parents then forced to endure 8h in an environment that we might not like or even hate, then forced to spend the rest of the day recuperating(both physically and mentally) and resting so that we can do this all over again the next day. If that's not the definition of torture than I don't know what is.
I can't tell you how enjoyable the reinvigorating midday nap is. Even a 15 minute power nap when I'm dragging can be wonderful for the mind and my stamina.
If I can get Mrs. Cog to cuddle with me when napping then nirvana has been achieved. :-)
What time is it?
Time to eat something
time to seek shelter
time to sleep
time to wake
time to love
time to hunt
time to fight
if dogs run free, why can't we?
Cog, -- your most enjoyable article I have read yet. Your perspective on time and the dialation of it during the brief, natural heightened awareness during 'let's ride out of this wreck' resonates with many of us.
I recommend to anyone a visit or stay at 'Clock Tower Inn' at Rockford Illinois. Their clock museum is the finest in this country.
Oh! And I wish Cog a bigger Tractor. With a front-loading scoop.
For sure on the tractor. I suspect one will materialize when I least expect it. As I integrate myself into the community it is amazing how various opportunities pop up. The more people you know the more opportunities present themselves. Plus there is always something for sale on the side of the road around here. Eventually one will have my name on the side.
Time is something we so obsess over but you will never control time. Personally it is the journey I enjoy. I tried the beard thing and did not like it myself. I prefer to be clean shaven. I do agree we are slaves to mother nature, especially minding my strawberry patches we planted this year. I am semi retired as my wife owns a bakery and from time to time I do go out there to fix and repair equipment. I help the bakers when they are swamped with orders. I enjoy it. Retirement and doing nothing is foreign to me honestly. I tried it and was going nuts. I am at a point in my life where time does not really matter much. I get up when I get up and sleep when I am tired and do not worry about the clock or the time it states.
I just head to the shop and do some wood work or read books.
Good read Cog. I alway enjoy reading your blog.
Mrs. Cog has called me a workaholic. I like to stay busy. Idle hands, idle mind. My best thinking is when I am doing something with my hands. Plus I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when a task is complete.
I've had my most creative thoughts while doing manual labor that I enjoy.
Body, mind and spirit working together as a self affirming self sustaining system. What can go wrong with a energy like that?
Time is a queer thing; once while skiing down a race course at a good clip, my ski tips dug in and I was propelled out of my bindings, head first - at that moment, time slowed and it seemed like I was floating through the air, then it seemed like a good idea to tuck my head and do a somersault with the result that I landed perfectly standing up to the cheers of the crowd. It was quite a delicious feeling and I'm sure it all happened in a split second although it seemed much, much longer...
I used to ride Motocross when a young man. One day I was messing around in a gravel pit nearby that I knew well. Normally I circumnavigate the entire area to make sure I know what has changed since they were constantly moving material around. This day, impatient to start riding hard, I cut short my inspection and made a run at a 50 foot high hill that allowed one to get airborne another 15-20 at the top before landing.
I hit the base of the hill perfectly and was able to accelerate up the side despite the loose gravel and dirt. I blasted to the top, went airborne and...........the other side of the hill had been moved. It was gone. Completely gone. I was looking at 70 feet of air under my bike.
Like you, time slowed for me and I went through several scenarios of what I should do. I decided I needed to get away from the bike and tumble so I pushed the bike down and away and got both the bike and I tumbling. I did not want to land on the bike nor it land on me. I actually got myself moving on a different vector than the bike and did several head over heads tumbles before landing on my back while still rolling.
The bike landed about 10 feet away from me.
While I did not break anything I could not move much for almost a half hour. Finally I slowly dragged myself up in pain like I had not felt before and crawled over to the bike. Surprisingly other than bent handle bars and dents in the tank and side covers it was in decent shape. It couldn't be ridden because the shifter lever had been sheared off and the clutch lever smashed to the side. I pushed that sucker the mile to home and did not touch it for a week because that was how long it took for the pain and aches to stop.
Lesson learned. Thankfully I survived my own stupidity.
I suspect the skills learned in Motocross are what saved my ass in the street incident (on a sreet bike) I described in the article.
Cog,
You and I discussed time some years ago and it is a bit of a pet subject for me in physics discussions, because it is the basis of much confusion. This is something I wrote recently and posting due to my own lack of time to rewrite in for this context, but it does offer a different perspective on the issue;
As individual beings, we experience change as a sequence of events and so think of time as the point of the present moving from past to future, which physics codifies by reducing time to measures of duration between events. Yet the underlaying reality is that change is forming and dissolving these events, such that it is they which go future to past. Now duration does not exist outside the present, but is simply the state of the present, as these markers form and dissolve. To wit, the earth does not travel some dimension from yesterday to tomorrow. Rather tomorrow becomes yesterday because the earth turns.
One way to think of this is in a factory, where the product goes from start to finish, while the production line points the other direction, consuming raw material and expelling finished product. This also is how life functions, as the individual goes from birth to death, while the species is constantly moving onto new generations and shedding the old. The arrow of time for structure and unit is toward the past, while the arrow of time for the process is toward the future. Our thought processes are constantly absorbing new information and creating fresh thoughts, while the old ones fade into the past and the jumble of our non-linear memories. Physics does recognize that clocks beat at different rates in different physical conditions, but than assembles spacetime to explain why. If we were to think of time as simply a measure of action, it would be no mystery why clocks beat at different rates, because they are different actions and every action is its own clock.
As an effect of action, time would be more like temperature, than space. Time is to temperature, what frequency is to amplitude. It is just that while amplitudes en mass expresses as temperature, frequency en mass expresses as noise and thus from a physicist's point of view, chaos and disorder. Therefore to measure time, only one oscillation is isolated and its frequency measured. Yet the overall effect of change is still cumulative, like temperature. It is potential, to actual, to residual. With time as an effect of action, we don't have to reject the present as a state of simultaneity, nor dismiss its inherent asymmetry, since the inertia of action is not bipolar As action, a faster clock will simply use up its available energy faster and so fall into the past faster, or require more energy to sustain it. The tortoise is still plodding along, long after the hare has died.
Keep in mind that narrative and causal logic is based on this sequencing effect and therefore history and civilization. Yet it is not sequence of form which is causal, but transmission of energy. Yesterday doesn't cause today. The sun shining on a spinning planet creates this effect we who exist at one point on this planet experience as days. Thus we tend to rationalize connections between events that are not always accurate.
There are various philosophical debates around this issue, such as free will vs. determinism, yet if we look at it as future becoming past, it makes more sense, as probability precedes actuality. There is the classical deterministic argument that the laws of nature will provide only one course of action, determined by the eternal laws of nature, therefore the future must ultimately be as determined as the past, or the quantum Everrittian argument that the past remains as probabilistic as the future and so must branch out into multiworlds with every possibility. As for the first, while the laws might be fully deterministic, since information can only travel at a finite speed, the input into any event only arrives with the occurrence of that event and so cannot be fully known prior to it, therefore the outcome cannot be fully determined prior to the event. As for the Everritt view, while the wave doesn’t fully collapse, the past does not physically exist anyway and that energy is just being transmitted onto other events in the physical present and the connections that are made, simply divert the energy in other directions.
Now to will is to determine. We put our intellectual capacities into distinguishing between alternatives and that process decides our actions. To simply randomly chose would be a complete lack of expression of will. We affect our external world, as it affects us. If that feedback didn’t exist, we would have no connection, or effect on our world. We are part of the process. Both cause and effect. It is these feedback loops which really power the process. Consider that in the factory, the creation of profits and jobs can be more important to some than the actual product. Reality is not fundamentally linear, as it is like a tapestry being woven from strands pulled out of what been woven.
It is energy, not form, which determines the future. Energy is cause, form is effect.
This also goes to the function of our brain. It is divided into two hemispheres, with the left being the linear rational/rationalizing side, while the right is the emotional, intuitive, non-linear, essentially scalar function. Think heat or pressure and how these concepts are often applied to our emotions. So one side reacts cumulatively with our environment, while the other side necessarily plots a course through it.
This navigational function translates to narrative and explains why plants don't need that sequential cognition and operate thermodynamically. Basically I see reality is the dichotomy of energy and form. Energy manifests form and form defines energy. For instance, waves are an expression of energy whose primary descriptive properties are frequency and amplitude. We have evolved a central nervous system to process information, divided into those two hemispheres to process these two attributes and the digestive, respiratory and circulatory systems to process the energy to thermally grow and both spatially and temporally move us.Yes, measures of duration and distance are related. Think how similar measuring the space between two waves, is to measuring the rate they pass a mark. Yet so to are measures of pressure, temperature and volume, but we don't confuse them because they are not the basis of our rational thought process.
Very interesting. Let me absorb it. Thank you.
Cog,
Sorry if that was a bit out of left field. It was written for a physics discussion and my cut and pasting was hurried. I do think our concept of time does go to some deep psychological issues currently causing problems. In light of the premise of your essay, it does have to do with everyone trying to run faster than the other and thinking this will lead to them getting ahead, but reality is not so linear. We are going to get to the end of that chain at a dead run.
Here is a more sociological essay I wrote last spring, as an entry in a contest, which you may find interesting;
http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1981
I downloaded it. What a delightful bio.
"(Brodix) has been at least moderately disturbed by the way the world is run his entire life. After sex, drugs and Rock’n Roll proved to be an inadequate solution, he turned to philosophy."
what is the world, who cares to say it?
great post.
.
here another.
[KR677] Keiser Report: Copyright Cartels
Posted on November 8, 2014 by Stacy Herbert
Read more at http://www.maxkeiser.com/2014/11/kr677-keiser-report-copyright-cartels/#...
In a somewhat similar situation as yours except that I am driven by a sense of how much needs to be done and how uncertain is the number of hours remaining.
When FDR froze Japanese assets in July of 1941, war became inevitable but the hour of outbreak remained uncertain. Still, great efforts were undertaken to remedy the deficiencies accumulated during the years of indolent peace in the few precious months remaining.
When our own Pearl Harbor moment strikes, however it may come and on whatever front it may be, we will be proceeding thenceforth with what we have on hand and with little chance to further remedy any shortages which may become apparent.
Tempus Fugit
i conclude that i am of them that started out with
"bad directions". must a been the right place but musta
been the wrong time ....
..
that second image is reminiscent of that artifact from
200 b.c. pre industrial mechanistic astrological clock
type mechanism thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
,
Dr. John - Right Place Wrong Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT4RainY-lY
.
that is just the way it is and then goes.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2014/11/democracy-now-interview...
07 NOVEMBER 2014
Democracy Now Interview Matt Taibbi and the JPM Whistleblower
You may read a transcript of the interview on DemocracyNow here.
...
time is running out on the limitations.
i don't understand people or concepts that
are comfortable with the phrase "time is a commodity".
commodity (n.) Look up commodity at Dictionary.com
early 15c., "benefit, profit, welfare;" later "a convenient or useful product," from Middle French commodité "benefit, profit," from Latin commoditatem (nominative commoditas) "fitness, adaptation, convenience, advantage," from commodus "suitable, convenient" (see commode). General sense "property possession" is from c.1500.
.
ditty bag (n.) Look up ditty bag at Dictionary.com
1850s nautical slang, perhaps from British naval phrase commodity bag.
.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=commodity&...
.
"time" is more profound, not that commodities are not important
and essential, they are just more fungible. on a certain level,
i doubt that many would express or trade their time for someone else's time on the
basis of the fungibility of human time; yet, it happens all the "time"
and is evidenced in the need for the word "vicarious". also, in the
trade of services or products for services or products in barter,
and then, in the value of currency. the best example encoded in
the nouns of family. brothers, fathers, mothers and children. this being so,
never consider your life(time) a commodity, i say, there be the
central trap and lever to your psychological enslavement and
spiritual death in this life. adherence to the meme "time is money",
people's time is fungible; the slippery slope of lost integrity.
your time is your life(time) and cannot be replaced by any other life (time)
from your perspective. when it is up, farewell. no more fungible honey.
.
in the context of other perspectives, all our time is fungible to
the extent it provides a service or product some one imagines
they desire, need or have made account for, more or less.
heart, mind, time, money, life, property and peace. go figure.
.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2014/11/sp-500-and-ndx-futures-...
.
there is that.
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9kWrB6D0bQ
and that.
.
Tom Waits - Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40FjQH3Xw0M
that is the one.
"..it is time that you love." t.w.
.
david bowie - changes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3vxEudif8
.."time may change me, but i can't trace time." d.b.
A great pleasure, as always, Cog. Thanks.
Take your time but if you don't study and work out you'll get depressed and in the meantime the roof needs to be repaired and the car has to be taken in for maintainance and winter is going to be colder than last.Does the generator have enough spare fuel. The relatives are coming over for Thanksgiving. Who keeps calling. And what ever you do don't be late. After 20 years of not working I can tell you that it is no vacation.
As I said in the piece I am busier than ever. But the flow is different because I wish it to be different. And of course my perception and perspective.
More and more often now I am reminded of the passage of time. I guess that now, everyday on the job, I am that "that old guy". I remember a long time ago looking at the older, grisled faces with five o'clock shadows, wondering what it must be like to rank among men, to no longer be just another kid in the periphery. Now, as one of the old guys, I wonder if I'm still respected or just tolerated. Today, I listened to some kid with peach fuzz tell me what about my job was important. I got news for him...
As Nmewn above noted, time truly is the most precious commodity.
I just this evening, for the first time ever, watched the movie Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood. It has been nearly that long since I began disengaging from movies, television, pop culture, etc. There was/is much in media that I just no longer understand, nor do I care enough to try. All of the mindless drivel is neither thought provoking nor entertaining. Most of it is just distraction from reality. Gran Torino is a good movie, though, and the main character with all of the character flaws of "real men" of yesteryear. Unfortunately for a few of us relics, those character flaws are no longer acceptable in modern society. It isn't that the old farts are any different, it is that the world in which we live has changed. It has changed with the passing of time. For those of us able to remember back to the days of just the "big three" and rabbit ear antennae, or even before, time seemingly moved much more slowly then. Men didn't outlive themselves. Or did they?
Everything wasn't on a twenty-four hour news cycle. Now, with the advent of the internet, the twenty four hour news cycle has been superseded by the world of instant alerts, and so forth.
Technology offers some of the most wonderful advantages today that just a generation ago weren't available to but a very few. The essence of technology, though, is that it is just another tool, simply, another means to accomplishing a task, like the electric can opener. Access to, and the use of, technology is a part of life now, but Is not life itself. At least, no more so than a kitchen isn't built around labor saving appliances. A stove, an oven, a sink, are all the items I really desire. Yet, every GD'd pampered chef nicknack and any other labor saving device that causes my kitchen and pantry to seemingly be near bursting at the seams still only produces a handful of meals, by which you can almost tell from what's on the table what day of the week it is. I guess that's a sort of measure of time! Yep, I do love her, though.
At a point growing up, I thought I was so mature and all by organizing my time, wearing a watch, keeping schedules, and so on. I was a lot more productive then, but it wasn't much of a pleasure. I worked hard and by stupid, blind luck have been blessed with a couple of acres on which to have a garden and a few small animals. A few real old-old timers who remember the hardships of a life of farming think it is ridiculous to do these things if I don't have to. I don't do it now because I have to, but rather, because I want to. I have damn near cracked the code on how to combine modern living with the practice of a few of the "old ways". If ever it turns out that I have to, the infrastructure is in place, priorities will be adjusted, and my small homesteading operations expanded to meet mine and my Family's needs.
The beauty of it is, when I get home again, the compost pile will be steaming in the early morning sunlight. The longer the steam is rising into the day, the further along into winter we are. The animals are growing winter coats, all of the leaves are raked, I've put away my bees for the winter, I've stored first and second cuttings in the loft, the does are bred, the pigs are nearing slaughter weight, a healthy fall calf will survive the winter, and on, and on. There are so many seemingly little things that need done, each according to their season, much as described in the book of Ecclesiastes. The greatest beauty of it is, that these things aren't according to man's schedule, but according to the seasons. It forces one's modern life into a different paradigm, one familiar to many just a generation or two ago. I think that of all of the rewards, this necessary slowing of time is the most wonderful. No matter how big a hurry I may be in on any particular morning, the cows just aren't going out any faster than they want to, the chickens aren't leaving nesting boxes precisely at whatever time, and the rabbits or goats won't deliver babies any sooner than when they are ready. Come spring time, I still won't be able to plant much of my garden until later in the season. The simple pleasure is that it all offers me many opportunities to enjoy a steaming cup of coffee, another draw off a cigarette, and quiet time to reflect. It's those kinds of little things that make my life good now.
I guess if we only get one shot at it, we might as well take an opportunity or two to enjoy it.
Thanks for a good post, Mr. Cog. If my reply was a little long and rambling, I blame it on the beer.
The stars made time right down to the minute
.
we divide it in the name of science to the billionths of a second as it never seems to stop moving
.
enjoy your expanding reality you can try to measure it when you cease to exist
I've had a beard for fifty years. I trim it at least weekly. I grew it because both parents had skin cancer and I was told a beard protected from the sun. I enjoyed it because it was frowned upon at the time.
Time is noticed when the brain pays attention to it rather than the activity. Do what you must. Then do what you desire. Everything else wastes time. What you need control is what you must do. Time is relative as described by Einstein. His example was that if you look at a clock while leaving it at the speed of light, the time never changes. Your life, your time, your efforts are all relative to your perceptions. Ought not your acts and your use of time be made relative to your desires, not theirs'?
I think. I want. I act. The clock is their regulator, not mine.
As my focus shifts from doing what I must to doing what I want, my sense of time is changing. It is fascinating to both watch the change while experiencing the change, both observer and observed in one.
I can round the same corner a dozen times in a week and see/perceive different things each time. While I could blame the ever changing weather and foliage around here, the truth is the observer is the one undergoing radical change and not so much the observed.
Enjoy and be satisfied, Cogs. Luckily, freedom can be your choice. Why should not perceptions change? The fallacy is to believe reality as perceived is constant. You're living the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in that your observations change the reality for you.
Your perception controls your reality, while you may control your perception.
i think this perception you speak of is a "in the moment" emotion that i would seriously doubt you have the control you speak of. when i round the corner i would just enjoy what unfolds whether new or the same but serioyus don't even want to control that experience...whatever happens man, roll with it, live life and create asmany round the corner experiences by doin stuff...
You can control your perception by learning to look with different mental filters or becoming aware of the previously unknown. I.e. On my property, I walked with a botanist and discovered orchids.
duplicate due to bad response server
OK CD, you almost had the perfect post, but you left out the music !!!
So without further adieu, I give thee time !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93qoxbLzJUY
An excellent selection. And live to boot, which adds immeasurably to the listening pleasure.
Well , time is shorter than you think .
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2014/11/slingshot-atmospheric-rivers.html
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2014/11/slingshot-atmospheric-rivers.html
There is a very high probability of at least one Arkstorm level event (more likely two) between the 12-15 Nov 2014 on the Continental North America
I cannot find a way to warn anyone . The govt sites like FEMA does not even have menu items for input by the public .
Crackpot ?
I can but help to try.
The danger is real , and can easily be ameliorated by simple govt warning .
Cassandra seems alive and well
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2011/06/cassandra.html
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2011/06/great-gla_2.html
Time is a priceless commodity consumed everyday without anyone hardly giving a thought of it.
The young want to be older, the older want to be younger and the tweens try to pound every ounce of living from it, sometimes not stopping to appreciate the beauty of a sunset or the scent of a rose.
And it is interesting how time seems to slow when your life is in peril (like on your motorcycle, been there...lol). Sometimes its when you think you're almost out of it, you can really make the most of it ;-)
In that few moments of time, when one is in imminent and acute danger, the Ego flees ( like the coward it truly is) from one's consciousness. One is truly present, in the moment. It is beautiful! I think that this explains extreme thrill seeking activity by some people. The thing is, one can achieve this freedom from "time" with ( beat the dead horse) a beneficial meditation practice. One doesn't have to risk one's life to entirely comprehend the beauty of each and every moment.
"I remember reading a long time ago that man took his first step from savage to civilized when he began to master time".
I think man took his first step from simplicity and beauty towards delusional dysfunction when he began to invent time. There is no such thing as past or future. They are but concepts. However, we have acquired this ability to conceive fantasy ( or sometimes personally distorted memories), if you will. With that ability, we now have to ground ourselves in presence and use the conceptualizing aspect of mind, without fear based delusion.
Pay attention to one's own thoughts as they materialize from the bubbling cauldron of consciousness. Are they not entirely consisting of memories and/or worries? Or expectations?
"In that few moments of time, when one is in imminent and acute danger, the Ego flees ( like the coward it truly is) from one's consciousness. One is truly present, in the moment."
What an interesting thought. Thank you.
Me and my ego shall contemplate this. :-)
You can get there without a threat to your life. Many have experienced the state of flow where time is timeless. To be able to access it at will would be a neat trick, seeing as how your power is so increased during those times.
just challenge yourself by doing something that could go awry and follow with death. bicycle ride or survival camping as examples, but seriously get off your ass and challenge yourself...
Art Bell, many years ago and deep in the night, used to talk about "Time Traveling," in that in the interior of our minds, seconds can become hours and vice versa. In our dreams as well, all bets are off as to "real time" vs. "dream time."
Costa Ricans promise things will happen "ahorita" ("right away in a little while, or so,"), or "ahoritica" ("right away in one little Costa Rican while -- which can extend indefinitely -- or so"). It can mean 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 m onths, 5 years, or 500 years, or several of these at the same time, or nothing. Fastest way to get a Costa RIcan functionary to go slower is to try to make him (or her) go faster. ¡
¿When? ¡Ahoritica!!
Manana...
I don't no how to type a ~ above the n.
Ah yes, in our dreams. Just as 'real' as any cold shower in 'this' reality. The difference is the dream is our own reality while 'this' realty is shared, thus the perception that it is more 'real' than our dream.
The motorcycle incident was burned into my memory and is nearly as vivid today as when it happened nearly 37 years ago. Interestingly the memory plays out in my mind at the same slow motion speed I experienced during the event itself.
Now that is funky.
Tachypsychosis is a very interesting phenomenon. I had it when I rolled my truck. In two or three rollovers I had time to feel sorry for my kids, watch the empty booster seat roll arouind the cab of the truck and realize that the end of Star wars is unrealistic. Darth Vader wouldn't have been fiddling with the knob and looking around, he would have been white knuckling the steering apparatus.