Mid August. Although there is no lessening of each day's tasks, each day the light is shortening. This time of year makes the tensions between actual day and the work day so apparent. While the triadic rotations of the earth, the sun, and the moon command the temporal dimension on our planetary system. No material object on earth can escape them. Life on earth has tuned itself to these recurring sequences. They govern reproduction cycles, foraging cycles, feeding cycles, hibernation cycles, migration cycles, nest building cycles, molting cycles, and growth cycles. 

Hman experience of time, however, is rarely dictated by the observable rhythms of the earth, the sun, and the moon.  Dawn, noon, and dusk do not comprise our work day. Our activities do not evolve with the phases of the moon each month.  Equinox and solstice do not initiate annual cycles of behaviors. 

Psychologically, biologically, sociologically human activities are now regulated by seconds, minutes, and hours measured by clocks that were invented to control these arbitrary temporal units. Likewise, calendars document and synchronize weeks and decades. Clocks and calendars regulate shifting temporal topographies into fixed units counted out in exact, predictable measures.

Increases in the distances that humans travel and communicate have increased demands for temporal consistency. ‘Local time’ is differentiated from ‘universal time’.  The latter ignores the position of the sun relative to a locality. It also disregards work times, meal times and sleep-times. Instead, it provides world-wide temporal consistency to facilitate communications regarding an astronomical event like a supernova, the collection of satellite data, or space travel. Globalization is also rendering local dates extinct. The beginning and ends of days are adjudicated by the ‘international calendar’ that respects the ‘international date line’.  The authority of all the measures rests upon common agreement.

There were no such distortions when people measured temporal units according to the lengths of the shadows cast by the sun, configurations of stars, ebbs and flows of tides, courses of the moon, tonalities of clouds, choruses of frogs, buds on trees, ripened fruits, morning dews, and drifting leaves.  Dials and numbers have usurped the temporal indicators that are immediate, that can be perceived, and that correlate with experience. These unmediated observations of time all proceed gradually from one state to the other. Dawn does not announce the beginning of a new day with the precision of an alarm clock.  Trees do not drop their leaves overnight to announce the arrival of autumn.  Rain does not fall without warning like a tipped bucket. These events are the result of gradual transitions. Temporal accuracy in these situations is measured by experience, not seconds.

Be first to comment this article | Add as favourites (8) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 30