Finding Ways to Measure Time
For some events in life, clocks and calendars are not really relevant.
Somehow it occurred to me that each person has a unique system of measuring time according to events in their lives and the events in the lives of those around them. I call them Variating Degrees of Time: Important events take the form of landmarks in our life, and we break up greater units that are not necessarily equal in length (of time) based upon them. Perhaps there is one cornerstone that breaks somebody's life in two: having a child, losing a loved one, immigrating to a different country, are all examples of this case.
Second to those, we could name events such as meeting the person you will eventually marry (marrying that person will be a cornerstone too), getting a degree, finding a new job. Those are followed by the ones that I call the "Re's"; they have a more immediate effect and are not so rare, but still carry a considerable significance in the path to greater events: Being REunited with your significant other, REturning home after a long trip, RElocating or moving to a new apartment, and so forth.
The interesting thing is how my "number one" events become "number two's" in other people's lives and vice-versa. My sister's wedding certainly breaks her life in two; she can refer to events before and after it, and use it as major "landmark" in her own time. It is important to me, I understand the significance of it, yet in my life it is not quite a number one; I would consider it a number two. To my girlfriend, the same wedding means a trip to a different country, meeting my friends and family, and perhaps experiencing a new culture. Exciting, yes, but probably a number three. To her parents, it will mean fun stories when she comes back home, some pictures and a nice evening with their daughter (and if she actually likes my family, it might mean a little more), but it would likely be ranked a number four.....and so on.
The closer you are to somebody, the smaller the degrees of time you will attach to events in that person's life. When you actually share the same degree, you have reached a point at which that person is absolutely indispensable in your life (losing him/her, will break both your lives in two). As the degrees increase, the effects that those person's events have on your life decrease accordingly.
Why in the world did I come up with all that? I don't know. But it's 4:00 am and it's time to go to bed. Maybe if some day I get a PhD in Sociology I might polish the idea a bit more and use it as my thesis, so dear audience, you may borrow it, but don't steal it! (The chances of me getting into sociology are perhaps 1/10,000 anyways, and the chances of having an "audience" greater than those people who are more than two degrees away from me is even smaller than that!).
Ok, enough nonsense for tonight...
Somehow it occurred to me that each person has a unique system of measuring time according to events in their lives and the events in the lives of those around them. I call them Variating Degrees of Time: Important events take the form of landmarks in our life, and we break up greater units that are not necessarily equal in length (of time) based upon them. Perhaps there is one cornerstone that breaks somebody's life in two: having a child, losing a loved one, immigrating to a different country, are all examples of this case.
Second to those, we could name events such as meeting the person you will eventually marry (marrying that person will be a cornerstone too), getting a degree, finding a new job. Those are followed by the ones that I call the "Re's"; they have a more immediate effect and are not so rare, but still carry a considerable significance in the path to greater events: Being REunited with your significant other, REturning home after a long trip, RElocating or moving to a new apartment, and so forth.
The interesting thing is how my "number one" events become "number two's" in other people's lives and vice-versa. My sister's wedding certainly breaks her life in two; she can refer to events before and after it, and use it as major "landmark" in her own time. It is important to me, I understand the significance of it, yet in my life it is not quite a number one; I would consider it a number two. To my girlfriend, the same wedding means a trip to a different country, meeting my friends and family, and perhaps experiencing a new culture. Exciting, yes, but probably a number three. To her parents, it will mean fun stories when she comes back home, some pictures and a nice evening with their daughter (and if she actually likes my family, it might mean a little more), but it would likely be ranked a number four.....and so on.
The closer you are to somebody, the smaller the degrees of time you will attach to events in that person's life. When you actually share the same degree, you have reached a point at which that person is absolutely indispensable in your life (losing him/her, will break both your lives in two). As the degrees increase, the effects that those person's events have on your life decrease accordingly.
Why in the world did I come up with all that? I don't know. But it's 4:00 am and it's time to go to bed. Maybe if some day I get a PhD in Sociology I might polish the idea a bit more and use it as my thesis, so dear audience, you may borrow it, but don't steal it! (The chances of me getting into sociology are perhaps 1/10,000 anyways, and the chances of having an "audience" greater than those people who are more than two degrees away from me is even smaller than that!).
Ok, enough nonsense for tonight...
posted by Juan Pablo at 3:55 AM
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