Rosy Glow – Tempus Fugit?

By

Andrew DeMarco

Does time really fly?  I was reminded of this earlier in the year when the summer had barely begun. It was the Fourth of July Holiday and all I kept hearing was how the summer was almost over. With the end of summer on September 22^nd,  I would like to remind everyone that it was not almost over on July 4^th  nor did it end on Labor Day weekend which is exactly 3 weeks earlier than the official end of summer. This also got me thinking of an old high school buddy of mine, Victor Fontana who had an interesting take on time.

Victor used to tell a story about one of his first job interviews after college and the interviewer asking him, “Do you mind working long hours?”  Victor’s reply was that the interviewer was asking a trick question and he was not going to fall for it. The interviewer gave him a quizzical look and Victor then explained. “There is no such thing as long hours, you see every hour has only 60 minutes.” He then went on with his recitation, every minute is 60 seconds, there are 60 minutes in and hour only 24 hours in a day and so on, except for  leap year which is longer. The reverse is also true we cannot make the hours shorter by taking away minutes and you cannot make any other unit of time longer or shorter. If is so true so why do we “rush” time and make it seem like it is flying?

There are a lot of factors that can give the appearance that time is going faster than it possibly can. Maybe we can blame advertising. After all when you look at ads lately they usually are months in advance of the holiday or occasion. For instance “Back to School” promotions start in July, Halloween in August and Christmas begins in October in stores just to name a few.( Don’t get me wrong I love Christmas but there is nothing more annoying than hearing Christmas Carols in stores in October.)  Would this not give the appearance that time is going by quickly?  To me, this “Christmas Creep” as it is called ruins the holiday spirit in that we seem to have to maintain that spirit for months rather than a few weeks. This, to dupe the consumer, to get them to spend earlier and more often, all in the name of making more money. The reality is, when summer ends we are still 94 days away from Christmas.

Others would say that we live in a much faster paced world and this is probably very true. With 24 hour news cycles, and communications being almost instantaneous, with Tweeting, texting and e-mail all this would also give one the appearance of time flying.

But who makes it a faster paced world? We do. Do we really have to reply to that text message usually was one is walking down the street as soon as we get it? Absolutely not!  In most cases we should take a step back before replying to e-mails or texts. How many times do you reply immediately and then regret something that was or wasn’t in that text or e-mail. Or better yet how many times have we seen someone walking into a pole or other obstacle while texting? Is it really that important? Although it would be difficult maybe we should try to ignore all the ads and store decorations that make it seem like time is flying.

No one can give us more time, but people can sure help us waste the time we have and make it seem like it is going by too fast. We need watch the news when we want to, and do that holiday shopping at our leisure. Maybe we can put down that smartphone and not answer that text right away. They say as you get older time goes more quickly but how can it when Victor was absolutely correct that hour still has 60 minutes no fewer.

You see I have learned to take time not necessarily at a more leisurely pace but as it was meant to be, 60 minutes for every hour and 24 hours in the day. I do not shorten the minutes or days. For instance this Rosy Glow was originally thought of back in July when I first heard that remark that summer was over. But I would not let summer end then or even now.  So I took all the time I could and I finally got around to finishing this Glow just in time for the official end of summer. Now I can really take a look back and realize that summer did not fly by, but it was the same 93 days it always is.

So “Tempus does not Fugit”.  Now I can begin at that same regular 60 minute hour and 24 hour day to look forward to the holidays and in 101days from the end of summer, not before, the New Year and thank my old high school buddy Victor “Cent-anni” Fontana whose nickname means 100 years for his take on time and that fills  me with that feeling that Cousin Bob would call that…..Rosy Glow.