Carmela Rieline V.

Cruz 2013-13742
Dr. Aileen Salonga
English 10
26 September 2013
Time Will Tell
Human consciousness is the mother of civilization. Man's awareness of self and presence
has created the omniscient eye that enables him to see the world in its different dimensions.
The rise of mankind irrevocably initiated the whirring and turning of the gears of the
mind. This breathtaking thinking machine not only allowed man to dissect that which surrounds
him but moreover, that which concerns his own existence. With impressive efficiency, it has
recognized the subsisting structures and intrinsic laws governing the very essence of nature. The
mind is our stimuli to reality - it is the entity that deciphers our surreal connection to the space
we move in. However, due to the mystical workings of the mind, we realize that we actually
move through space. Amidst the redundant episodes of darkness and light, we perceive the truth
that we are never in the exact same place hence our experiences do not occur in the exact same
space. The wide spectrum of unique experiences encountered accounts for an aspect of
singularity that contradicts the uniformity of the universe - our thoughts and circumstance cannot
be replicated, replayed, and relived. Our being is not stagnant because it is made dynamic by
encounters that broadens our perspective of the environment. The event of evolution takes root in
the change that sparks in the mind and is translated into human action - our presence is not static,
it is cataclysmic.
Movement through space constitutes the intrinsic struggle to fathom the odd ways of the
world. As a brilliant physicist so eloquently wrote in his book A Brief History of Time, "our
goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in." (Hawking 9). Time is
a man-made concept that aims to define this change - the transformation often spurned because
of the overwhelming patterns that dominate life. It is an attempt to make sense of how we move
through space as a member of the universe.
The fundamental and most basic use of time is the simple objective of tracking periodic
changes. Time vividly and systematically shows the ephemerality of natural phenomena.
"Ancient people turned to nature for the first timekeeping." (Barksdale, dsc.discovery.com) Our
ancestors observed certain practices in keeping record of time through nature-reliant ways.
According to Martha Berksdale of Discovery Channel, there are 10 known methods of measuring
time the most famous being the sundial which was used by Egyptians in 1500 B.C. whose
purpose is to divide the day into 10 parts. Constellations also served as season markers that
guided the agricultural endeavours of early communities. Time was used to synchronize tasks to
achieve greater social order - a vital scaffold that supports the construction of a civilization.
New schools of thought were unfolded as novel fields of interest captured the attention of
certain individuals. Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton have enriched the study of motion by building
upon one another's postulates to form the Laws of Motion accepted in modern society. They
investigated the ability of an object to travel a specific span of distance within a particular
period. In this case, they have quantified space - they provided discrete values for the space the
object moved through while traversing its designated path. Time advanced into a more complex
disposition, one that can be simplified into concrete figures that can be processed by our thinking
machine. It was used to attain intellectual order - grasping things that exceed human control.
The ulterior motive behind the inception of time is the completion of our knowledge of the
universe that enables us to inaugurate a state of stability in society. It is a pursuit of a common
tongue that would instil a sense of conformity for the purpose of convenience and organization.
Time is a social construct that dictates universal norms. It ordains the concept of the "daily
routine" - it determines whether certain hours fall within the scope of morning, afternoon,
evening, and even slumber. Arbitrary connections are then formed as to what activities must be
fulfilled during distinct periods. These links become the backbones of schedules commonly used
in the professional realm of society - time becomes the space wherein plans are plotted and
executed. As clearly defined by Management Study Guide, "Effective time management allows
individuals to assign specific time slots to activities as per their importance." This viewpoint
sheds light on yet another characteristic of time - space is tailored to suit our priorities,
sentiments, and interests. The field of history is perhaps analogous to this facet as it documents
notable events that depend on the significance attributed by the majority on the period of its
occurrence. With meticulous organization, it presents a chronology of happenings based on the
sequence of appearance or manifestation - a linear and progressive line of succession.
Stephen Hawking has gracefully articulated the linear perception of time as he stated
"Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder
increases." (Hawking 74). This implies that we do not only view time as a mere chain of crucial
events but as a stream of experiences that amass in space and thus contribute to the greater
complexity of thoughts and even of time itself. Time is then unveiled as a two-faced creature - a
paradox and a self-contradicting entity. It is a symbol of cognitive development and intellectual
prowess because we have validated it as a concept but it can also represent the limitation of our
mental faculties as it exposes our dire need of concrete and tangible data to comprehend the
metaphysical. Time is a friend that offers us liberty to transform our space according to our own
set of ideologies but it can also be our worst enemy as we are only given a fraction of space that
is finite and unpredictable. Progressive or inhibitive, liberating or oppressing, permanent or
transient, time cannot be defined in the range of black and white. It is an intermingling of
contrasting elements that permits it to evade logical human understanding.
Time is a matter of nomenclature - it is assigning terminologies to a force whose existence
we know to be true yet we cannot prove to be true. It is counting the grains of sand falling in an
hourglass simply because subconsciously reciting numbers in our head is much easier to bear
than facing the reality that there is something happening, a vigorous entity that rages on which
we cannot see, hear, smell, taste, or touch. We choose to see what keeps us connected to our
space (what can be perceived by the senses) and turn our backs on the aspect of time that is
invisible and intangible.
Time is an illusion. Its origin is unknown and so is its end. We settle for the principle of
infinity for we cannot ascertain the the beginning and the edge of time; we accept that the
continuity is omnipresent regardless of our existence. This tremendous fact questions our belief
of the past, present, and future. As one blogger creatively expressed:
One day, after all the years of planning, you will realize that you reached the place you
were working toward and then you reached it again, and again, and youre dumbfounded
by the realization that life is a constant game of reaching for somewhere well never quite
be. (Wiest, thoughtcatalog.com)
A child of 5 years of age would view his 16 year old self as his future and his 3 year old self as
his past. However, once he reaches his 16 year old alter ego, his 18 year old self becomes his
future and his 5 year old self along with his 3 year old version is considered his past. Once we
have achieved our goals, it is natural to move on to new ones and so the future shifts, the present
is displaced and the past changes its domain. The concepts of the past, the present, and the future
are a myth because we are constantly moving in space. How can one chase the beam of light
when he is the one holding the torch?
Time is the defining factor of the vagueness of life. It is the door towards understanding the
space in and through which we move. Time propels us to acknowledge our being and its relation
to the niche in the universe that we occupy.
Time is a line that flows forward continuously without pause or hesitation - we are the
points on the line. We are the stories, lives, and encounters that accumulate to form the line of
time. Living in different spaces, we give life to this seemingly invariable and lethargic dimension
of the universe. The timeline is the perfect representation of mankind for it encompasses the
changes we made with our own space. It collectively defines the countless human experiences
that makes us unique individuals leading lives that are eccentric to us. It is the story of man
through the ages, how he increased disorder to establish order and how he transformed the
cosmos to build his race. Time is our legacy to the universe - through it shall our generation be
remembered.