29 September 20XX+1
My Dear Lucilius:
Sometimes to amuse myself, I go back and read my writings to you. It is a good practice of course, this reading of what one has written in the past (instead of just writing and moving on). Given the circumstances, it sometimes gives me a good chuckle.
Last year at more or less this time, I was still fuming over the force majeure that took my truck from me. It surprises me that it has been that long and yet not that long at all.
Time, it seems, has a way of getting away from us.
In re-reading that entry, it made me realize that at the end of this year, my calendar runs out – oh, if I wanted to start up one of my electronic devices I suppose I could get an orientation of things, but in terms of practical analogue paper calendars, the backup to the main calendar – that one they so often insist on printing in smaller print at the end of the annual calendar – runs out.
I am trying to decide how much I care.
Oh, I can certainly “re-figure” the calendar for next year and probably will do so, just to relieve any sense of “missing a day” anxiety that seems to infect me so much. But even with a figured calendar, how much will that really matter?
This situation finds itself a bit like what I suspect retirement used to be like in a way: there is a sense of days passing but the weeks and months begin to blend together. When I write you these missives, I put a date on the top because that is what I was trained to do. I never include the day, because back when I was working we never included days for things like dates. Days were for scheduling meetings and tasks and activities and vacations. Remove the importance of named days as indicators of where we fall in the week or month, and suddenly events just seem to run along at their own pace.
Now, the days do not matter so much. The seasons matter, the temperatures matter – when I can plant and harvest and when I need to ensure the most wood is available, those things matter. When certain things are in season – that mattered before for things like berry picking; it matters even more now when berries are not just delightful side dishes but possibly (fortunately, not yet) the whole meal. And what day it is has absolutely no impact on how much daylight we have to productively use (too far little as we move closer to Winter).
As I think on this, I begin to see how things like Solstices and Equinox were important, how religious feasts and festivals helped to mark time, and why years were often known in terms of the Archons or Counsels or Emperors. In a world where the days were marked as either feast days or holy days, market days or days of owed service, did it matter whether it was Tuesday or Thursday?
It is not so much that time keeps slipping into the future, as the song of our youth suggested. It is that time is simply slipping into the reality of the now and needs of the future – measured not so much by individual days but by seasons and periods.
If this sort of free flow of time is what retirement would have been like, I am sorry that I missed the opportunity to truly engage in it.
Your Obedient Servant, Seneca
It is interesting that time keeping and time points are something every culture throughout human history has done in their own way. I agree that it seems to be seasons that become more important that the individual days. At least that's what I think based on the kind of lifestyle we have. I do keep track of the days, though, and we do mark a six day work cycle with a seventh day of rest.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, my father gave me a bundle of letters I'd written him when I was first off on my own as a young adult. I was surprised to see that I'd dated none of them. I thought that too bad, as it would have been nice to put that time period into a more specific frame of reference. Just for myself.
Leigh, I know you have written several times about the importance of seasonality in your life now versus specific days. And more and more I find days to be a construct of an industrial culture that needs to defined what days are for what activities.
DeleteThat is an interesting note about the letters your father saved. I have found that in a sense in earlier cards or drawings my children gave me or, when at The Ranch, going through cards and drawings from us. Some years ago I took to writing the year on the back of the item to give some context in terms of time.
When my Brother and I were much younger and had no families at home, deer season was weekend hunts and full weeks during college term vacations. Both of us noticed the longer we stayed, the less the day and even numerical time became. We became more aware of the wind direction and velocity and time was measured by hours spent during the morning / evening hunts on stand. A LOT of beautiful sunrises - sunsets appreciated, listening to the woods come alive, the activities of all animals (especially birds) took up a lot of the slack time. It was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have that time to spend as much anymore. Family responsibilities and all. But I clearly remember what it was like - and I'm glad I took the time to do that back then.
Anon - Thanks for sharing those experiences. That is similar to (much shorter) experiences I have had hiking for more than a weekend and training in Japan. At some point the activity takes over and one is just in the moment and the experience.
DeleteHonestly, I am hoping to get to more of those times now that I am somewhat on the backside of intensive family related activities.
Calendars are IMPORTANT. The Aztec Priesthood made a living telling the farmers when to plant crops and when the rains were expected because they had that information of historical calendar dates that worked well.
ReplyDeleteOnly when the weather changed that they lost their power over decades of bad harvests. They FAILED to adjust their Calendar to the new season cycles.
My garden logbook notes what days we had early and late freezes.
When the rains came and when I planted and harvested. Often with notes to how to do better next year. Like planting squash later to avoid the early squash bugs and still get a better harvest.
All information almost useless if I totally lose the Calendar dates.
An example, it's been more than a year since the old calendar was deemed useless and used for fire making. It feels warm enough to plant. We work the land, plant the garden and about a week later a spring frost (well-marked on the OLD Calendar and Garden Logbook) destroys our valuable seeds.
That is a good perspective Michael, and you make a valid point that for historical purposes and denoting potential future events, they are very important.
DeleteIn my early journals, I never put the day of the week and one can generally determine the day by reading a week's worth of entries and getting the days through context. But for the last decade, possibly longer, I have included the day of the week. I guess if nothing else, it gives me quick reference when searching for something I wrote about in the past. I also find it a quick reference when I am on long trips and not around a calendar. Much better than scratching a line on a cave wall.
ReplyDeleteEd - Interesting idea to use it as a point of reference. That would certainly help the search functions. I may give it a try in my own journal and see what happens.
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