Measuring time
31/03/14 06:16
We measure the passage of time in so many different ways that every day is an anniversary or occasion of some sort. In general terms, today is the last day of the first quarter of 2014. I’m not sure how it got to be this day, but it sort of catches me by surprise. It seems like we just started 2014. I still have to be intentional about writing the correct year when I write a check (though I confess I don’t write too many checks these days). Tomorrow we start the second quarter.
The measuring of quarters of the year is imprecise. We generally call three months a quarter, which ends up being off by a little bit. A year has 365 days (or 366 in leap year). Technically, then a quarter is 91 1/4 days (or 91 1/2 in leap year). But if we count months, the first quarter is only 90 days (91 in leap year), while the second is 91 days and the 3rd and 4th quarters are each 92 days long. So the first quarter goes by a little more quickly than the other ones, though I don’t think that it necessarily feels that way.
I do understand the sensation that time is speeding up as we age. A year to a two-year-old is half a lifetime. It is a significantly smaller percentage of my total experience.
Actually precision might not be the best way to measure the passage of time anyway. Of course there are all sorts of very accurate ways of measuring time. Scientists use very precise time measurements to make observations about the world. Precise time measurements are essential to the operation of GPS navigational devices, for example. For most of our purposes, however, precision isn’t required. In human experience different times have different qualities. A minute waiting for a traffic light to change feels different than a minute saying good bye to a loved one. A day of manual labor passes at a different rate than a day of traveling on the airlines.
The difference between the quality of time and the quantity of time has been the source of disagreement and argument for as long as humans have inhabited this planet. The ancients struggled with the concept of Sabbath. They observed that there is a natural rhythm of work and rest and that the failure to allow for rest results in a decrease in the amount of freedom. This observance was formally placed into law with Moses on Sinai, but the people struggled to make the concept work for them. Thousands of years later in the time of Jesus, people were still struggling with the concept. The idea of Sabbath and which activities are and are not allowed on a “rest day” figures in the healing of the man born blind in John 9. It figures in many of the encounters between Jesus and various religious authorities in the narratives of the Gospels. Jesus seems to be saying that getting technical and using human methods of measuring the passage of time might bring one into compliance with the technical requirements of the law, but being in compliance with technicalities doesn’t make a person truly free.
We like to have formulas to measure our lives. Even though every child development expert and parent knows that children are different and develop at different rates of speed, we have established standards. Children go to kindergarten at age 5. 18 years of age is a good time to graduate from high school. Add four more and a first college degree can be earned by age 22. Allow a couple of years for changes of direction, volunteer service, or other events and we expect young adults to be engaged in their careers by 25. Then they can retire after 40 more years at age 65. We set up all kinds of numbers and measuring sticks. There is some value in recognizing anniversaries as milestones. But we are all different and trying to establish set patterns that apply to all people simply doesn’t work very well.
Some children aren’t ready for kindergarten at age 5. Some adults aren’t ready to retire at age 65. The numbers are, in many ways arbitrary. Even if we did come up with a good set of numbers, the world changes. When the age of 65 was set as the standard for retirement, life expectancies were much shorter and people who had reached the age of 65 were considered to be old. People live more years now than was the case in the 19th century. There are plenty of people who work into their seventies and eighties and find work to be meaningful. When the concept of retirement, as opposed to working unti the end of life, was put forward in Germany, the proposal initially was for some kind of public benefit or payment at age 70. Despite the story that is often inaccurately reported, the chancellor of Germany at the time, Otto von Bismark was himself 74. The old story that is often told is that the age 65 was chosen because that was Bismarck’s age. That simply isn’t true. The German program was established with an age 70 retirement that was lowered to 65 27 years after it was adopted. By that time Bismarck had been dead for 18 years.
Retirement programs have often been seen as benefits to the entire society because people retiring from paid employment creates jobs for young workers trying to establish themselves. Most societies have found the cost of government-supported retirement programs to be lower than government-supported unemployment programs.
The reality is that there is no perfect age for retirement. And there is no perfect age for any major life event. Our way of measuring time in years is arbitrary. Health and wellness might be better standards. Some people need to quit working at age 50. Others might work into their mid eighties. Different jobs also provide different working conditions. The risk of injury goes up with age, but there are many jobs where risk of injury is not significant.
So we head into the second quarter of 2014 with the refrain from the old song by the band Chicago in the back of my mind: “Does anybody really know what time it is?”
The measuring of quarters of the year is imprecise. We generally call three months a quarter, which ends up being off by a little bit. A year has 365 days (or 366 in leap year). Technically, then a quarter is 91 1/4 days (or 91 1/2 in leap year). But if we count months, the first quarter is only 90 days (91 in leap year), while the second is 91 days and the 3rd and 4th quarters are each 92 days long. So the first quarter goes by a little more quickly than the other ones, though I don’t think that it necessarily feels that way.
I do understand the sensation that time is speeding up as we age. A year to a two-year-old is half a lifetime. It is a significantly smaller percentage of my total experience.
Actually precision might not be the best way to measure the passage of time anyway. Of course there are all sorts of very accurate ways of measuring time. Scientists use very precise time measurements to make observations about the world. Precise time measurements are essential to the operation of GPS navigational devices, for example. For most of our purposes, however, precision isn’t required. In human experience different times have different qualities. A minute waiting for a traffic light to change feels different than a minute saying good bye to a loved one. A day of manual labor passes at a different rate than a day of traveling on the airlines.
The difference between the quality of time and the quantity of time has been the source of disagreement and argument for as long as humans have inhabited this planet. The ancients struggled with the concept of Sabbath. They observed that there is a natural rhythm of work and rest and that the failure to allow for rest results in a decrease in the amount of freedom. This observance was formally placed into law with Moses on Sinai, but the people struggled to make the concept work for them. Thousands of years later in the time of Jesus, people were still struggling with the concept. The idea of Sabbath and which activities are and are not allowed on a “rest day” figures in the healing of the man born blind in John 9. It figures in many of the encounters between Jesus and various religious authorities in the narratives of the Gospels. Jesus seems to be saying that getting technical and using human methods of measuring the passage of time might bring one into compliance with the technical requirements of the law, but being in compliance with technicalities doesn’t make a person truly free.
We like to have formulas to measure our lives. Even though every child development expert and parent knows that children are different and develop at different rates of speed, we have established standards. Children go to kindergarten at age 5. 18 years of age is a good time to graduate from high school. Add four more and a first college degree can be earned by age 22. Allow a couple of years for changes of direction, volunteer service, or other events and we expect young adults to be engaged in their careers by 25. Then they can retire after 40 more years at age 65. We set up all kinds of numbers and measuring sticks. There is some value in recognizing anniversaries as milestones. But we are all different and trying to establish set patterns that apply to all people simply doesn’t work very well.
Some children aren’t ready for kindergarten at age 5. Some adults aren’t ready to retire at age 65. The numbers are, in many ways arbitrary. Even if we did come up with a good set of numbers, the world changes. When the age of 65 was set as the standard for retirement, life expectancies were much shorter and people who had reached the age of 65 were considered to be old. People live more years now than was the case in the 19th century. There are plenty of people who work into their seventies and eighties and find work to be meaningful. When the concept of retirement, as opposed to working unti the end of life, was put forward in Germany, the proposal initially was for some kind of public benefit or payment at age 70. Despite the story that is often inaccurately reported, the chancellor of Germany at the time, Otto von Bismark was himself 74. The old story that is often told is that the age 65 was chosen because that was Bismarck’s age. That simply isn’t true. The German program was established with an age 70 retirement that was lowered to 65 27 years after it was adopted. By that time Bismarck had been dead for 18 years.
Retirement programs have often been seen as benefits to the entire society because people retiring from paid employment creates jobs for young workers trying to establish themselves. Most societies have found the cost of government-supported retirement programs to be lower than government-supported unemployment programs.
The reality is that there is no perfect age for retirement. And there is no perfect age for any major life event. Our way of measuring time in years is arbitrary. Health and wellness might be better standards. Some people need to quit working at age 50. Others might work into their mid eighties. Different jobs also provide different working conditions. The risk of injury goes up with age, but there are many jobs where risk of injury is not significant.
So we head into the second quarter of 2014 with the refrain from the old song by the band Chicago in the back of my mind: “Does anybody really know what time it is?”