{"id":407,"date":"2024-05-04T18:32:04","date_gmt":"2024-05-04T18:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/?p=407"},"modified":"2026-01-23T19:51:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:51:22","slug":"are-we-there-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/2024\/05\/04\/are-we-there-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Are We There Yet?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

TIME. Is there anything more variable in our experience of life? As a child in the family car, heading to see Grandma (we called her Baba), it passed so excruciatingly sloooow. Now, at 76, I simply don’t know where the past 25 years have gone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like only yesterday that Barbara and I were fully immersed in the busy daily life of both working full-time and the kids finishing high school. Now we watch them go through their own experience of raising a family. I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you – we have three beautiful grandchildren, one is 15 and two are fraternal twins almost 6 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an abundance of literature, both philosophical and practical, on the subject of time. In fact, even religion joins the discussion. If you are interested, you can find a biblical reference to time standing still. In the Book of Joshua (10.12-14), it is recorded that both the sun and the moon stood still for one whole day. I’m not qualified to explore all the questions related to that narrative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My purpose today is to reflect on some implications of the question, “Are we there yet?” It is a small bite compared to the mouthful that is raised in the Joshua record. And, keeping it somewhat manageable for a non-expert like myself, I will focus on the contribution of French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) as expounded in an article by Matyas Moravec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moravec wrote his article in December 2020 when society was reeling from effects of COVID. The common perception was that time was moving very slowly as we inched our way through the pandemic. Moravec used this context to ask the question, “Why does time feel different, fast one year and slow the next?” He references Bergson’s concept of la dur\u00e9e as a source for some explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is an overview of Bergson’s approach. Time has two faces, one being ‘objective time’ (as recorded on a clock) and the other being ‘la dur\u00e9e’ which is actual lived time. This is our inner subjective awareness of how time is actually felt and experienced. In the usual flow of daily life, we often do not pay much attention to la dur\u00e9e. Our activities are largely directed by the time indicated on our timekeeping devices. We take notice, however, when the two concepts of time begin to separate and go in different directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few examples. When children are happily playing outside, time kind of stands still. That is, until Mom or Dad calls out from the kitchen window, “You have 5 minutes to get in the house and washed up for supper.” Suddenly, the joyful languish of la dur\u00e9e is replaced by the tyranny of the clock which completely alters the la dur\u00e9e experience. The reverse occurs when those same children are in the family car on the way to Baba’s house. Rather than a 5-minute deadline to terminate their enjoyment outdoors, the children now have a seemingly interminable length of suffering to endure. At the adult level, one example is the difference between how we may experience 4 to 5 pm at the dentist’s office versus 4 to 5 pm at the TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) social gathering after work. It is the same clock hour but a significantly different la dur\u00e9e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moravec ends his article with a thought-provoking statement that works best if I quote all of it: “If we accept Bergson\u2019s more controversial claim that only la dur\u00e9e is ‘real’ and objective time is merely an external construction imposed upon our lives, one might say that the pandemic has given everyone an insight into the fundamental nature of time.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For children, it is so common to experience the “Are we there yet?” problem. But for adults, I wonder if we find ourselves more often asking the question, “Are we there already?” Where have the past 25 years gone? We got here way too fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

______________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of you whose interest is piqued for a bit more, here is an anecdote from Moravec’s article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In 1891, Bergson married the cousin of the novelist Marcel Proust (1871-1922), whose writing was strongly shaped by Bergson\u2019s dur\u00e9e. Proust\u2019s monumental\u00a0In Search of Lost Time<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 the longest novel ever written \u2013 illustrates the ability of la dur\u00e9e to contract and expand, regardless of objective time. As we read, the progression of Proust\u2019s lived time feels natural. And yet each volume passes in a different ‘objective’ time: some volumes span years, others just a couple of days, despite the fact that they\u2019re all roughly the same length.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TIME. Is there anything more variable in our experience of life? As a child in the family car, heading to see Grandma (we called her Baba), it passed so excruciatingly sloooow. Now, at 76, I simply don’t know where the past 25 years have gone. It seems like only yesterday that Barbara and I were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":424,"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions\/424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miles2go.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}