Of calendars
05/06/15 05:25
We have all kinds of markers to demonstrate the passage of time. I don’t use paper calendars very much anymore, but the calendar that is shared between my phone and the computers at home and work is as cluttered as my paper calendar used to be. I keep track of appointments, meetings, deadlines, and other time-sensitive aspects of my life. Unlike the paper calendar, the digital one allows for alarms to be set. Throughout the day various beeps and vibrations remind me of the passage of time and the things I should be doing. I’m not sure that this system is any more efficient than a paper calendar to which I refer from time to time, but I have adapted to the use of my phone to remind me of the things that I should be doing.
I have also programmed my phone to remind me of significant days throughout the year. It reminds me to wish friends “Happy Birthday!” and to take time to celebrate significant anniversaries.
I think that our awareness of time and of its passage is more intense than was the case for previous generations. My father always word a watch and he liked a precise timepiece, but it was nothing compared to the accuracy of a cell phone that is constantly in touch with very accurate clocks. During part of the year, he woke to an alarm clock, but there were entire seasons where he rose and went to bed more by the light of day and the amount of fatigue he felt than by the measurement of a clock. I had an uncle, who was a farmer, who didn’t need a watch. He woke when the sunlight came into his bedroom and went to bed when the chores were done for the day. They kept a calendar on the wall in the kitchen and it had some important items, such as doctor appointments, penciled in. There were more days on the calendar without things written on them than the ones with appointments or other important dates.
When our children were in high school, the school issued planning calendars for the students and had them put into their calendars the important deadlines and assignments and other elements of their academic careers as a method of teaching students to manage time. I remember being aware of the big difference in how students used those planners. Some had every class and every assignment carefully written into their planners and consulted them frequently. Others left the planners in the bottom of their backpacks and carried the important information and deadlines in their memories. I didn’t notice a big difference between the academic performance of those who used their planners and those who ignored them.
These days, I notice that many middle and high school students are relatively unaware of their schedules. They can tell you what is going to happen today and perhaps tomorrow, but if you ask them if they are free for a meeting or event next week or next month they are likely to say, “Yes,” without any awareness of conflicts. I’ve learned that “yes” doesn’t mean that they are available. It means that they can’t remember the conflicts in their schedule. Planning with youth this age is a challenge and it takes multiple conversations, texts, Facebook posts and other communications in order to arrange an event. Different individuals use different media to communicate and their parents may use yet a different media, so keeping everyone informed is way different than years ago when we used to send out a printed schedule of youth group events once a month.
Today is a day that I don’t need my phone or any other calendar to remember. Among the other significant events of the day, it is the first birthday of our granddaughter. I don’t have trouble remembering the news as it unfolded and was reported to us by text message. I don’t have any trouble remembering the day. It is a little different for our granddaughter than it was for our grandson because the year that he was born was a sabbatical year for us and we had a bit more flexibility in our schedules. We were able to spend a bit more time in their home town during the first year of our grandson’s life than has been the case for our granddaughter.
As is the case for me with the coming of all birthdays these days, it seems like the year passed incredibly quickly. In contrast to families who lived many miles apart in previous generations, we have wonderful technological tools to keep in touch. We use Skype and Factime to video chat and we get to see our granddaughter on a regular basis. Like her brother, she now responds to our images on the screen of their computer or tablet and shows sings of recognition. Our relationship isn’t the same as if we lived in the same town and were able to be together more often, but it is greatly enhanced by the technology. There is a great value in being able to see and respond to the visual. When our children were little, they didn’t respond to the phone at all during their first years. I think they were 4 or 5 before they were able to speak to their grandparents on the phone. We get a much more complete view of the lives of our grandchildren.
Nonetheless, the distance is great, and I confess that I long for opportunities to be together in person.
For now, I hope that our granddaughter is blissfully unaware of calendars and schedules and the complexities of our busy lives. I hope that she is free to play and dream and explore life without being burdened with our over attention to the passage of time. There will be plenty of time for her to learn about time management, appointments, deadlines and other encumbrances of adult life. These days she still has the ability to sleep during the day and keep her parents up at night. She is not too concerned with her birthday or the need to count them as a measure of the span of here life.
The girl has a good attitude. I would do well to imitate her on occasion.
I have also programmed my phone to remind me of significant days throughout the year. It reminds me to wish friends “Happy Birthday!” and to take time to celebrate significant anniversaries.
I think that our awareness of time and of its passage is more intense than was the case for previous generations. My father always word a watch and he liked a precise timepiece, but it was nothing compared to the accuracy of a cell phone that is constantly in touch with very accurate clocks. During part of the year, he woke to an alarm clock, but there were entire seasons where he rose and went to bed more by the light of day and the amount of fatigue he felt than by the measurement of a clock. I had an uncle, who was a farmer, who didn’t need a watch. He woke when the sunlight came into his bedroom and went to bed when the chores were done for the day. They kept a calendar on the wall in the kitchen and it had some important items, such as doctor appointments, penciled in. There were more days on the calendar without things written on them than the ones with appointments or other important dates.
When our children were in high school, the school issued planning calendars for the students and had them put into their calendars the important deadlines and assignments and other elements of their academic careers as a method of teaching students to manage time. I remember being aware of the big difference in how students used those planners. Some had every class and every assignment carefully written into their planners and consulted them frequently. Others left the planners in the bottom of their backpacks and carried the important information and deadlines in their memories. I didn’t notice a big difference between the academic performance of those who used their planners and those who ignored them.
These days, I notice that many middle and high school students are relatively unaware of their schedules. They can tell you what is going to happen today and perhaps tomorrow, but if you ask them if they are free for a meeting or event next week or next month they are likely to say, “Yes,” without any awareness of conflicts. I’ve learned that “yes” doesn’t mean that they are available. It means that they can’t remember the conflicts in their schedule. Planning with youth this age is a challenge and it takes multiple conversations, texts, Facebook posts and other communications in order to arrange an event. Different individuals use different media to communicate and their parents may use yet a different media, so keeping everyone informed is way different than years ago when we used to send out a printed schedule of youth group events once a month.
Today is a day that I don’t need my phone or any other calendar to remember. Among the other significant events of the day, it is the first birthday of our granddaughter. I don’t have trouble remembering the news as it unfolded and was reported to us by text message. I don’t have any trouble remembering the day. It is a little different for our granddaughter than it was for our grandson because the year that he was born was a sabbatical year for us and we had a bit more flexibility in our schedules. We were able to spend a bit more time in their home town during the first year of our grandson’s life than has been the case for our granddaughter.
As is the case for me with the coming of all birthdays these days, it seems like the year passed incredibly quickly. In contrast to families who lived many miles apart in previous generations, we have wonderful technological tools to keep in touch. We use Skype and Factime to video chat and we get to see our granddaughter on a regular basis. Like her brother, she now responds to our images on the screen of their computer or tablet and shows sings of recognition. Our relationship isn’t the same as if we lived in the same town and were able to be together more often, but it is greatly enhanced by the technology. There is a great value in being able to see and respond to the visual. When our children were little, they didn’t respond to the phone at all during their first years. I think they were 4 or 5 before they were able to speak to their grandparents on the phone. We get a much more complete view of the lives of our grandchildren.
Nonetheless, the distance is great, and I confess that I long for opportunities to be together in person.
For now, I hope that our granddaughter is blissfully unaware of calendars and schedules and the complexities of our busy lives. I hope that she is free to play and dream and explore life without being burdened with our over attention to the passage of time. There will be plenty of time for her to learn about time management, appointments, deadlines and other encumbrances of adult life. These days she still has the ability to sleep during the day and keep her parents up at night. She is not too concerned with her birthday or the need to count them as a measure of the span of here life.
The girl has a good attitude. I would do well to imitate her on occasion.