The Challenge of Time

I remember as a kid how slow time seemed to drag on. Not that I complained, but it felt like summer vacation lasted forever. The school year definitely seemed to drag on and the anticipation of birthdays and Christmas took eternity to be fulfilled. Life then seemed to gain speed as I got older. A week flew by, a month didn't take long and eventually even a year was something I could easily grasp and deal with. At age 16 or so, I came up with a theory of why time was going faster. I figured that each day or year was a smaller percentage of my life. When you are age 2, a year is 50% of your life, so it is way long. At age 10, a year is 10%, so still long but nothing like half. Now approaching age 30, one little year is merely 3% of my life. That's nothing.

So at age 29 I'm still a partial believer in my theory, but I also think that lifestyle dictates my time too. A lot of that lifestyle has to do with technology. I think about what I do in a given day and in the 1980s it would seem that I'm wasting my time away (maybe I am). I spend a bunch of time each day doing each of the following, watching TV, blogging (both reading and posting), emailing, talking on my cell, and texting. All of these things have become standard and almost necessities in my life. As a kid we had black and white tv, and then color for a few years, and then no reception just a VCR. We had no computer, let alone the internet or blogs or email. No cell phones and I hardly spent any time on the phone. Although these gadgets are great and improve the ease of communication, have they been for the best or do they just filly the daily schedule? I don't have time to go explore the forest or build tree houses and forts (not that EM has any trees anyway) or play with matchbox cars or rubberband guns. I know I've grown up (at least I hope I have) but with that has come all the challenges of maintaining a household - housework, yard work, etc. Then I find myself constantly looking for that break or vacation. Only to go on vacation and come home to tons of work that I'm behind in, so I want another vacation. Stress comes and I then hope life will get easier after whatever happens only to have another whatever coming on the horizon.

I do miss the old days, but love my life too much right now to go back : ) My thoughts remind me of the Rascal Flatts song "Mayberry"

"Sometimes it feels like this world is spinning faster
Than it did in the old days
So naturally we have more natural disasters
From the strain of a fast pace

Sunday was the day of rest
Now its one more day for progress
And we can't slow down
Cause more is best
It's all an endless process

Well I miss Mayberry
Sitting on the porch drinking ice cold Cherry --- Coke
Where everything is black & white
Picking on a Six String
Where people pass by and you call them by their first name
Watching the clouds roll by
bye bye

Sometimes I can hear this old earth shouting
Through the trees as the wind blows
Thats when I climb up here on this mountain
To look through God's window

Now I can't fly
But I've got two feet
To get me high up here
Above the noise and city streets
My worries disappear

Well I miss Mayberry
Sitting on the porch drinking ice cold Cherry --- Coke
Where everything is black & white
Picking on a Six String
Where people pass by and you call them by their first name
Watching the clouds roll by
bye bye

Sometimes I dream I'm driving down an old dirt road
Not even listed on the map
I pass a dad and son carrying a fishing pole
But I always wake up everytime I try to turn back

Well I miss Mayberry
Sitting on the porch drinking ice cold Cherry Coke
Where everything is black & white
Picking on a Six String
Where people pass by and you call them by their first name
Watching the clouds roll by
bye bye"