June 7, 2015 johnwhye415

My Personal Theory Of Relativity

Don’t get excited or frightened by the title of this blog, this has nothing to do with the Einsteinium viewpoint of relativity, e=MC squared or whatever it is, whatever it was that brilliant theoretician and mathematical wizard of a genius conceived of, formulated and proceeded to prove…Oh hell no! That is way beyond my comprehension and no doubt, no offense, I am sure way beyond the comprehension level or interest of most of my readers as well! No, this is just me, musing on life and the paradox of time on yet another cool and foggy day in San Francisco, early in June, 2015…

This last month of May has been an exceeding fast paced month for me, because my daughter and granddaughter are visiting me and we have been doing many fun outside activities….Every single day we have been going somewhere, like Fisherman’s Wharf, roller skating at the Golden Gate park, going to Haight Ashbury and browsing the stores and soaking up the atmosphere several times, and the time has just flown by!

We have had a lot of fun and are busy seemingly from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep late at night…We have all had a real blast, and the time zips by like a runaway train…

It is funny but there are other months that were the exact opposite, where my perception of time was radically altered! …Time is truly a paradox, sometimes days, weeks, months fly by and you can scarcely remember what happened to them, what you did, who you saw, on any particular day…

In fact, in these months you can’t even recall any particular day, it all just flows by so rapidly, like a mudslide of things that occurred, things that got done or got put off, people you saw or didn’t see, bills you may have paid, deadlines that had to be met etc etc…

And then there are months like last April, where I swear everything seemed to have been put into the super.… slow….. mode….I actually love it when this happens, because it means that for one thing nothing bad really happened, because that always is a demarcation point in one’s life…

But still it proved that nothing exceptionally good happened either, which sometimes is OK, because again that would interrupt the flow of time in a tangible, real time way…No, last April just sort of flowed by, peacefully, routinely and without any defining outside events that would speed it up or make it like almost every other month…

I am writing this all off the top of my head, my recollections of last April, and I may as well have titled it “A Glorious Saturday Afternoon,” because one day in the middle of the month I spent like 2 hours outside doing absolutely nothing especially memorable, yet every instant of the day is etched into my mind by the sharp stylus of memory….

It began by my dragging my sick, dying of kitty-cancer cat and constant companion of the last 17 years out from his little hidey hole by the side of the fridge where he has been moleing for the last several weeks…It has been more than somewhat depressing lately, because every day I approach him in the morning with trepidation, thinking this may be the day that he is dead, the day I find him cold and unmoving, and that is no fun way to wake up each morning, and he is no obvious pain…

But he was fine as usual today, i really admire the raw animal vitality cats and all animals have, all his vital signs were strong and he ate his breakfast hungrily, as usual, then decided to go mole his way back besides the fridge….But today, I wanted him to experience the warm April sunshine, I do this every day when it is warm, and so i dragged him outside…

Imagine my surprise to see him completely transformed into the curious, restless, inquisitive beast he has always been in the past! He was, well not exactly frisky as a kitten, but he refused to nap, he wanted to explore and test his boundaries by walking back to the parking area, where I had to turn him back repeatedly because of the reality that if he darted under one of the parked cars, I would have a really hard time retrieving him….

One of my friends in the building, one of my upstairs neighbors came down and sat on the steps and smoked a cigaret, and we had a casual but lively conversation about current events and what she could do to spend her afternoon, since she was bored and had no particular place to go, or be, just like me…Of course our conversation was repeatedly cut off by me chasing down my cat, or by the noisy streetcars that rumble by repeatedly and make any lengthy conversations impossible…

The cat was inspirational, he repeatedly explored new areas, he went to the back, he walked up to the corner, he finally flopped down and took a nap for a while…He woke up when another neighbor from across the street came by and this neighbor had a large, friendly dog with him, off the leash…My cat woke up from his cat nap when he smelled or sensed the dog and walked fearlessly up to her and sniffed her, then satisfied there was no threat, he just went back to sleep!

This is not per se a column about my cat, although he was an integral part of that particular day…The point is, the afternoon just flowed by, effortlessly, easily, in no particular sequence of events, just random happenings that occurred and then passed by…In fact, THAT is the whole point of this blog, the whole month of April was like this, today was just one day in a seemingly endless supply of days, just a lazy Saturday microcosm of the entire month, distilled and refined and purified to the very essence of time slowed down and passing by of it’s own accord, of it’s own volition, at it’s own leisurely pace…

Cat-slow-kotion-ninjas-scene

Maybe that is the secret of time, to just let it flow, to just ride along with it, like a surfer on a wave, and not worry about deadlines or bills or fixed, preordained places you HAVE TO be, people you HAVE TO see, appointments that you HAVE to make…I don’t know, like I said, i am writing this off the top of my head, but it just seemed so right, so perfect of a day that I had to take note of it….

Maybe time is best ignored, it is just a background upon the really important things that happen in life, slow lazy conversations with friends, playing with your pets, soaking up the warm California sunshine, just letting things play themselves out…I have always been consumed by a fascination with the nature of time, i wish that i was smart like Einstein and that i could figure out in some intuitive way, or else scientifically devise, produce and promulgate some unified theory of time, like he did by mathematically proving his unified theory of relativity….

What Einstein did was a revolutionary accomplishment in the world of physics, it was an objective verification of what was before simply a subjective, random collection of facts, seemingly not connected in any way, but in the end he proved that they were all tied together, it was a unified theory that was objectively, mathematically provable!

Time is slippery, it is elusive, trying to even define the exact nature of time is like trying to hold water in your hands….. Because it is always slip sliding away, oh so close but in the end beyond my grasp, beyond all of our grasp….I always seem to be right on the verge of coming up with some grand theory of the nature of time only to once again watch it slip helplessly, inexorably, through my fingers…

As the old saying goes “Where does the time go?” I guess sometimes it goes nowhere, in fact maybe it never goes anywhere, it is always just simply a backdrop against which we measure the events of our lives, like that old soap opera “Days Of Our Lives,” with its compelling mantra of an introduction theme “So like sands through an hourglass, so go the days of our lives”…

I don’t know why the nature of time is so compelling to me, but I do know it has always been that way for me…I have always been fascinated by books or movies about time travel, if it is in fact possible, from the earliest days of Jules Verne and his mechanical contraption in “The Time Machine.”

I have progressed to the multidimensional concept of an infinite number of parallel universes as brilliantly proposed by the late author Michael Crichton in his book “Timeline”, which presupposes a multiverse of probabilities, an infinity of worlds almost exactly, precisely the same, split into intersecting time lines and denies the existence of time travel at all….

Whatever the exact nature of time is, whatever definition or label you want to put upon it, I consider myself fortunate to have experienced the fullness of time this entire last month in April, and especially this one glorious sun splashed California Saturday….Time was on my side this entire April, when everyhing was all slowed down, and equally so this entire May, when time flew by because of all the fun I was having with my family …I guess it’s like that old Led Zeppelin song, “Good times, bad times, you know I’ve had my share…”

What is time exactly? I guess,

Only time…will tell…..

May 27, 2015May 27, 2015 johnwhye415

I Feel Like I Don’t Live In Real Time Anymore

“I don’t live in real time anymore.” Whatever “real time” is supposed to be, anyway….I don’t know where or when this concept/reality popped into my head, but whoops, there it is! I am recently retired, since June 8, 2012, so I am nearly 3 years into my unstructured time-time….I am obsessed with the concept of time, I always have been, whenever I read science fiction I always gravitated to the time travel books over all the others….The basic world lives by rigidly regimented schedules, they have their work week, their weekends, just like they have been trained by going to school all those years, same concept, different tasks….

The clock on the wall is already at “last call” for me though so I thought I would put down some of my musings and ramblings while I still DO have time, which is a really subjective concept….Time and our perception of it has always fascinated me, and I know Einstein’s early theories and the current crop of physicists are working on their own objective, scientific models, backed up by reams of measured scientific data, but that is just my point: I don’t subscribe to the theory that time is objective at all, I think it is instead subjective, in a really personal way for each individual….

For example, the other day I was overwhelmed by a revelation, a parting of the mental clouds that I usually labor under, to write this down on a scrap of paper: “The ephemeral machinations of time are irresistible and unstoppable, like waves on a beach,like molecules spinning in orbit, making up the magnetic discharge of energy we call brainwaves…this thought process, the eternal, internal movement of energy particles on their random orbits which determine who we are, what we are, all that we are…”

What does it mean? I don’t know, exactly, it was a sub conscious burst of inspiration, unbidden, like a blinding bolt of thought, a parting of the mental clutter that usually fills our minds, the “moment of clarity,” I get the exact same feeling when I write a song, another of my avocations…

The song actually writes itself, it is like automatic writing, it comes unbidden and unbiddable, and I have to quickly scribble it down on a scrap of paper or it will be lost, gone forever, from wherever it originated..if I TRY to write a song, the words are forced, but if it comes to me unbidden, pure and clear and blindingly obvious at the time, it always stands out, and it is always very good…

I think it is the unconscious formulation of thoughts and half thoughts that whir and whiz around my sub conscious all the time, a string of molecules that suddenly align themselves, and somehow my mind arranges them into a coherent fashion, and then I write them down…In other words, I don’t write the songs, the songs write themselves, I am like a medium in a trance, or a dreamer who can recall his dreams if he writes them down before he wakes up or else they are lost, gone, forever….

It is not just songs that come to me unbidden, the other day I had another random thought, there is so much religious and sectarian violence in the world these days, it suddenly came to me, and I scribbled it down on the inside of a match book cover so as not to lose the thought, “When we die, once we are dead, we have no nationality”…What does it mean?

Again, I have no clear idea, the point is that it is not a conscious, objective observation, just an intuitive flash of inspiration, and I think that is what the nature of time really is, a series of unbidden stringing together of partial random thoughts into a coherent, cohesive whole that somehow, someway, makes sense……And that somehow, someway virtually FORCES me to write them down so, dreamlike, they don’t disappear from whence they originated……

I have seen a lot in my life, technological advances that are truly revolutionary….When I was born, way back in 1946, television wasn’t even around, I mean some people had them but it took until the early 50’s before tv became the social phenomenon it is today, the centerpiece of most peoples lives….

There were 4 networks, no cable, and no remotes, and the tv was all in black and white the first few years, try explaining that to the kids today! I STILL think the greatest invention of this century was the VCR, for the 1^st time we could control the TIME we watched tv, taping shows for later, renting movies etc…i remember when my parents bought me my 1^st VCR, I used to tape all the stupid talk shows, like Jerry Springer, Oprah, Maury Povich, it was shock rock tv back then, and I was hooked….

And talk about sports! I NEVER had to miss a game anymore because of work or other time constraints, and I could also fast forward through all the dumb commercials and re watch every game I wanted to! OMG! I was in techno heaven! Now VCR’s are as dead as the dinosaur, DVR is the newest techno toy, the Net Flix streaming broadcasts etc are also revolutionary, and will shape our viewing habits for years to come, I haven’t caught up with that yet, but everything is virtual now, no more Blockbuster stores, no more saving up VCR tapes…i mean, the future is NOW and it changes almost every day!

We have so many choices of what to do on tv these days, like one friend has the Net Flix and the Blue Ray and the Wii game player and the surround sound and so many choices with her DVD player and all, the 32 inch HD tv she has is basically just a monitor…

I am not kidding my friend has like 4-5 remotes to control all this electronic wizardry, and she is not alone, most American homes today are more like her house than my house…We watch a lot of tv at her house because she has such a lot of tv to watch, her “electronic library” would shame most medieval scholars, another sign of the digital revolution we are all living through every day…..The world is changing rapidly, and the electronic devices are 2^nd nature to the kids growing up now, and still a source of almost superstitious wonder to an old dinosaur like me…

I have noticed that email is dead now, nobody ever emails anybody anymore, no now it is all about texting on their smart phones, including me, instead. The use of email today is as irrelevant as “snail mail” was when email came out 15-20 years ago, except in the business world….The social media like face book, twitter etc. are all powerful now….

Some teenagers even have actually committed suicide because they were snubbed or dissed or bullied on the social media, just to demonstrate the effect these ever expanding technologies have on our day to day lives! It seems like every day there is something new and exciting in the tech sector being talked about, developed or promoted, it is hard for an old man like me, I am now 69 and retired, to even keep up with all these new devices or “apps”as they are called!

Wow, now in the last 3 years I have been retired, and I have done nothing materially productive at all with my life…i am not living in real time anymore, that is the whole point of this essay, because I don’t have to! I get up whenever I feel like it, I have all my favorite shows pre taped on my DVR, and there is no one I have to account to whether I get up at 10 or 10:30 or even 11 am, although I do have a tendency to get down on myself for being so lazy if I sleep in past 10, I guess that is just part of my left over Puritan work ethic….I am a proud and unabashed Baby Boomer….

The total freedom that my DVR allows me to watch all my programs, especially sporting events, at my leisure, is a boon, a real God send…i usually watch them at night, when it is most convenient for me to do so, and I really love fast forwarding through all the commercials, and I kind of unwind from the day…but I have the FREEDOM to do so, when it is most convenient for me, and that makes all the difference in the world!

Before I had to regulate my time into segments, time for work world, time for shopping, time for sports etc and now I don’t have to do that…It is a much more fluid, interchangeable medium to work with, and I don’t feel any pressures or time constraints….In fact, the loosening or sometimes even outright elimination of time constraints, schedules etc are perhaps the most liberating part of this brave new world…

So much of regular society, especially the work world, and I include the school system too, which prepares us all so well for the rigid and inflexible time schedule of the work world, I was so locked into all of that, part of the system…

I, like everybody else, was bound and chained by the clock, the time clock at work, or the clock at home reminding me of what time it always was, the calendar on the wall that marked off the days of the week and the inexorable passing of time, like the old black and white pictures montage of calendar pages falling like leaves in the autumn onto the floor of irrelevancy…..

None of that is necessary anymore! I mean, I still use the calendar to mark holidaze and birthdays and doctor’s appointments yes, that part remains, but one of the first things I did when I retired was unplug my alarm clock!

OMG! The freedom from the tyranny of the alarm clock alone is a blessing that I never fully appreciated until it was an available, viable option for me…the whole Western concept of time is largely irrelevant to most of the world anyway, but we Americans are bound and determined to convert the world, as usual, to our point of view and frame of reference….

Getting rid of that alarm clock, no I did not throw it away, but I did gleefully unplug it and tossed it into some obscure corner of my apartment, because it was no longer relevant….The alarm clock, and it’s implications and reminders of things that I HAD TO do, or places that I HAD TO be at, like work world, where they questioned your work ethic if you were even a minute or two late, are all dim and distant memories now, and I don’t miss them one bit!

The insufferable arrogance of the Western world to subdivide time into years and months and days and hours and minutes and even seconds suddenly came into focus for what it really was: a tool devised by the Establishment powers to be to control the masses, rather than as a convenience to me as a person…There are entire cultures, like the Native Americans, who never did understand our Western concepts and notions of time, and now I can see so much more clearly their point of view…

Don’t get me wrong, I realize time exists, like there are seasons for growing crops, for hunting, for hunkering down for the winter etc that are vital and necessary and NATURAL, but those are all natural functions,the seasons are rhythmic and part of the climate, but the division of every second of time into weeks months days hours etc are all ARTIFICIAL and unnecessary…

Now that I am free of the blinders of work world, I can see that all the more clearly now, you have to step off the conveyor belt of Birth/School/Work/Death (a song by the English band (“The Godfathers”) to clearly see it and fully appreciate it…..