Time is the most frustrating variable in human affairs. Many families consider time as a slippery element; there is never enough to do all the things that need to be done. But as I will argue later on, this is not the case for everybody, and indeed everywhere in the world.

Time is perceived differently depending upon what you’re doing, where you live, and at what stage of life you’re at. Animals are not aware of time, but if they live among humans, it has an impact on them.

The clock begins ticking when we’re born and stops when we die. A human life is short and intense. No sooner have we begun, that it’s time to head for the exit. However, because we pack so many things in one lifetime, it seems much longer than it really is.

There are so many things one can say about time (excluding its scientific aspects) all I can do is express some of my thoughts. But let’s not stop the clock at the end of my article. Feel free to discuss some of your thoughts.

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No two people experience the passage of time in exactly the same way. The busy executive, and the harried woman who holds a full-time job and runs a household will experience time very differently from a retired person. On the other hand, the image of the retired person sitting on a rocking chair and knitting for her grandchildren exists mainly in pictures kept in dusty albums. Many retired people today keep busy. Unfortunately, for some, the minutes and the hours crawl. They are lonely (even if they do not live alone) and miserable. They have nothing to live for. Time can be an asset or a liability. We make the choice and live with it.

How we perceive and handle time will be influenced by our personality. Some people are great managers of their time, others run in hot pursuit after the hours of the day, and never quite accomplish what they set out to do.

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Animals are governed by time just like we are. But they cannot conceive of it the way humans do.

In the wild, animals will carry their daily activities when the sun rises and go to sleep at sunset; or vice-versa if they are nocturnal. They will mate, have their offsprings and care for them, in the right season.

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Nature has decreed that all living things must sleep during a part of the day. Sleep has been carefully studied by scientists. However, there is still a lot that we don’t know about it. From what we’ve learned, important physiological processes take place during the unconscious phase of our sleep, what we call deep sleep. The role of dreams is less clear. It seems that the brain gets a chance to reorganize itself, and sort out the day’s events. It is this process of “moving around the furniture” that produces our disjointed dreams. However, some dreams are well organized; some ideas that come to us during our dreams can be very useful. A solution to a difficult problem can be found after a night’s sleep.

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Technically, time starts when we are born. But this is a case where it is futile to start the clock at zero. A child retains few early memories. The birthday parties means friends, fun, pizza, and cake. He cannot conceive that its birth is celebrated. His mind cannot encompass such a concept. That being the case, when does time starts?

I was seven years old. It was the first day of school. The teacher introduced herself and then went to the blackboard and wrote the date. The year is what attracted my attention, really mesmerized me. Something clicked in my mind, this was the year we were at; in a way, the first tangible year in my life. Previous years simply did not exist; there are a few events that I remember, but I cannot tie them to years. That incident stayed in my mind and, years later, I recounted it to my son. Lo and behold! Seven was also the age when he became aware of the passing time. What about you, did your life also start at seven?

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Throughout our lives we play a game with time. I am at a loss to find an appropriate name for this game. Is it hide-and-seek? If we pretend we don’t notice time, then perhaps it won’t see us either?

From 7 until 20 we are in a hurry to grow up, to become adults, to test our wonderful theories, to change the world. So far so good, for indeed every new generation brings new ideas that create progress.

At 20 something changes. This young woman is all of a sudden aware that she is entering the third decade of her life. Growing up is not what it’s cracked up to be. She becomes aware that the world is challenging her ideas. This started in her teens, but she ignored it and forged ahead anyway. Now, she is more mature and is paying attention. There are other problems as well. The unlined face of her teen years is beginning to show the lines of time. Oh, not to worry, very, very few lines.

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1884 – 1946. The lifespan of my paternal grandfather, Isaac. I was only 10 when he died. For a long time I could not believe that nono Zaki (nono is grandfather in Italian, and Zaki is the Arabic equivalent for Isaac) would no longer love me and spoil me like he did for so many years. Eventually I had to face reality, my grandfather was gone for good.

1903 – 2005. The lifespan of my wife’s aunt, Paula. Before I went to visit her for the first time, my future wife warned me that aunt Paula was a force of nature and was always dispensing advice which was presented as the definitive word on the subject! Little did I know when I first met her in 1966 that she would be with us for some 40 more years. For a long time we waited for aunt Paula to mellow, be more accepting. We waited in vain. Very reluctantly, at 101, she consented to go into a nursing home. And you know what, we loved the fact that she never took a backseat to anybody. When my son called me in March 2005 to tell me that aunt Paula has passed away in her sleep, I was shocked. All the members of my family were equally saddened. How long did we expected her to live?

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I have 3 main articles of faith.

As far as I can remember, I have always believed in God. For me, it was never a matter of “maybe,” “but,” “what if,” or “prove to me.” My belief in a Creator has always been as natural as breathing.

The main problem humans have in their relationship with God is that they try to figure out His nature. How could there be a Being that always existed, and will continue to exist for all eternity? Why did He decide to create the universe and all that’s in it? What was there before? Why does He functions through 3 different personalities rather than one? (This belief is shared by all, or most, Christian denominations; the mystical part of the Jewish religion, i.e. the Kaballah; and perhaps other religions.) These are all futile questions. The human mind cannot encompass the vastness of the universe; how then can it understand the Creator of this same universe?

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