Telling Time

Most children do not get a good grasp on the concept of time until they around 7 or 8 years of age—right around second grade. Now is the only measurable moment little kids understand. And later is the equivalent of eternity. I remember this well when I was little. I learned very quickly that if I wanted to see the ire of my father I would repeatedly ask Are we there yet? --which would be answered with: No. In 20 minutes.

But to a little kid 20 minutes is meaningless information. A little kid will often inquire But how long is 20 minutes? So I chose a different strategy with my own children. I marked time as measured in television shows. My children understood that 15 minutes was one episode of the Nickelodeon show “Doug” and 30 minutes was an episode of “Full House.” I would say for example that it takes one episode of “Full House” and one episode of “Doug” to arrive at Uncle Mark’s house—45 minutes in adult time. And that satisfied them. It was a relatable reference.

The television set in my kitchen is on all day long. And by all day long I mean all day long even when I am not physically present in my kitchen or even physically present in my house. I leave the television on as background noise—for me and the dog. I rarely stop and watch it but for cleaning up the kitchen or cooking—and even then I am never focused on it. In fact for many years I simply had a radio with TV band for my listening pleasure.

And I turn on Eyewitness News in the morning and keep the channel fixed until I shut it off at night when Jeopardy is over. But recently, the programming on ABC-NY has changed. It first began with Oprah going off the air last June and then All My Children this past September. Regis then left me in November. And as of last week One Life to Live is gone too.

And while I only listened to those shows as I did my work, I discovered that daytime television shows were my markers of time. They informed me where I was in my day—lunchtime, coffee-time or cooking time. I feel unable to cook without Oprah and I can’t enjoy coffee time without some dialogue from Vicki Lord and Todd Manning. And I am so distracted by the different co-hosts with Kelly Ripa in the morning that I forget to put the laundry in the machine at 9 am. My body clock is confused. I no longer have my “people” referencing where I am in the time space continuum. Despite wearing a watch I cannot determine the correct time of day.

For Einstein the present, past, and future co-exist simultaneously. An individual’s sense of time is alterable. Time is relative—perception only. And perception is dependent on speed and distance—not a clock.  Time is a changing reference. It’s why the one Doug and one Full house episode ride to Uncle Mark’s house  always took longer in real time than the one Dog one Full House return ride home—even when there was no traffic. Time is not always measured in seconds, minutes and hours—it is relative to things like emotion and monologues and dialogues. Little kids and Einstein have it right.