Sunday Stream [267] ~ Time Out... way out!

Poetic insight & philosophy by Cecil Lee.

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Sunday Stream [267] ~ Time Out... way out!

Post by mtmynd » January 15th, 2012, 3:15 pm

To the animal world and the plant world our conception of time is meaningless. But to ourselves our whole journey of life relies on a sense of time from the obvious new day as the Sun rises daily in the east to the more refined fractionalization of time using seconds, minutes and hours combined with weeks and months. Early studies of time by our ancient ancestors noted yearly occurrences of the heavenly bodies that were accurate enough to count on happening the same time they returned to a set spot.

We're the only lifeforms that indulge in this time keeping as it allows us a larger understanding of the world we live in and the similarities that we share with all other lifeforms. It can be said that our interest in time is one of the major factors that make us what we are - homo sapiens. Obviously we could still survive without any cognizance of time... our very early ancestors had only the most primitive notion that soon flourished with each passing generation and their knowledge pool of the world in which we live.

Taking one hundred years as a reference point, a hu'man that lives to attain that age is rightfully considered old, no doubt. One hundred years is a major achievement for one's body to survive living in any conditions the world has to offer. Not many of us have or even will have the opportunity to see ourselves at 100.

One hundred times that individual has gone around our Sun... one hundred revolutions of living, breathing, thinking, sensing... being. But is that 100 years really anything to be blown away by... so significant when using our knowledge of time ? The very earth we live upon is currently believed to be 4.54 Billion years old, i.e. earth has revolved around its Sun 4.54 billion times... a far cry from 100 revolutions. The Triassic Period was 250-208 million year ago followed by the Jurassic Period 208 - 144 million years ago and then the Cretaceous Period which was 144 - 65 million years ago. Convert each of those years to one revolution around our Sun and when we note our own hu'manity "first appears in the fossil record in Africa about 195,000 years ago," we see using our own inventiveness on measuring time is far younger than anything other lifeform upon this singular planet in a singular solar system in a singular galaxy amongst billions and billions so far known to exist. Only (10) ten days ago, Hubble spotted "five tiny but bright galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years from Earth."

That measure of time translates to 13.1 billion times the distance light travels one year... again remembering all these tremendous times science has used for measurements is based on each year being one revolution around our Sun... nothing else. There is no other way we can measure time other than the way we have known how to do it for centuries... a methodology based upon a single complete revolution around our treasured Sun. The importance of our Sun is not any less important than it was to, say the ancient Egyptians who worshiped it. Current knowledge states Egyptian civilization came together around 3150 BC. More likely than not other civilizations have given great importance to our Sun and for damn good reason - we'd all be dead without the power of the Sun's energy. It's always been there for us and for all life prior to our existence on this planet. One can arguably say without the Sun there wouldn't even be any cognizance of time at all. And without time as we measure distances of the universe, we would have no preconceptions of the world we have been born into.

If we lived upon a planet that provided virtually the same conditions as Earth provides with the one exception being that planet revolved around its Sun twice as long as our own, would we be living twice as long? What if this make-believe planet revolved around two Suns... how would time be measured? And would life expectancy be far different from we Earthlings?

One of many arguments against UFOs and aliens from other worlds is that the next closest galaxy solar system would require many, many years (one revolution around our Sun) and therefore highly unlikely to ever occur. This is a statement based upon a very basic and simple measurement of Time... our own revolution around our own simple Sun in comparison to other Suns and galaxies and other lifeform's measurement of Time. Our own measurement of Time could very well be akin to the measure of life for a mayfly (1 day) to that of say, the bowhead whale (200 years), the mayfly (hu'mans) vs bowhead (aliens).

We're restricted by time whether we are aware of it or not. Life is a gift if we see it as such or it can be a pain in the ass if we're not too fond of our own life. Whether we live a short life due to an accident or disease, or a long life of that speculative 100 years ... it's what we do with our lives is all the ultimately matters. Perhaps that is why no other lifeform bemoans the shortness or length of life, because instinctively they know they are alive until they are not... and that is the best we can do ourselves. "Life is for the living" is an old adage that has been around for many moons and for good reason - it's unarguable. :)


cecil
1.15.12

Picture of the Week:
'Havana'

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Arcadia
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Re: Sunday Stream [267] ~ Time Out... way out!

Post by Arcadia » January 17th, 2012, 9:00 pm

Perhaps that is why no other lifeform bemoans the shortness or length of life, because instinctively they know they are alive until they are not... and that is the best we can do ourselves. "Life is for the living" is an old adage that has been around for many moons and for good reason - it's unarguable.

yeah, seems difficult to not agree with that, Cecil!!!! :)

great composition!!!!! :D is the caño in use? water, combustible or something else?. For argentinians Havana is first of all a delicious alfajor from Mar del Plata! :wink:

if the huracanes & the dollars let us do it, in six months two friends & I plan to be in La Havana doing a trip to Santiago de Cuba for a Caribbean Festival that it´s held there. Today I realized that Santiago de Cuba it´s next to Guantánamo.... auch!!!!!!!!! :shock: :lol:

gracias for sharing another stream with us, Cecil!!!!!!!!!!

saludos!,

Arcadia

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Re: Sunday Stream [267] ~ Time Out... way out!

Post by stilltrucking » January 17th, 2012, 11:12 pm

Life is a gift if we see it as such or it can be a pain in the ass if we're not too fond of our own life.
There it is again, duality
I think about poor old Freud, his lower jaw gone to cancer, his comment that it was not a pleasant sight to see him eat. Refused the morphine because he wanted to keep his brain clear so he could continue to write his last book.

Hunter S. Thompson, Spalding Gray, Sigmond Freud a suicide too.
Then there are virtual suicides like me and St Jack.

I been thinking about getting a stool softener things are getting so painful for me :) :wink:

thanks for the stream Cecil. Thinking about culture shock between different planets, there is quite of range in human culture, I am sure I have read of cultures or tribes that have no conception of time as we know it.
No words to express it anyway.
Amondawa tribe lacks abstract idea of time, study says

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13452711

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Re: Sunday Stream [267] ~ Time Out... way out!

Post by SadLuckDame » January 17th, 2012, 11:34 pm

It just made me mad that they have introduced the calendar system to the people. I don't understand why the need to intrude on their lives and influence it to take up how we are living ours. It's better to have differences than to take it away. sigh.
`Do you know, I was so angry, Kitty,' Alice went on...`when I saw all the mischief you had been doing, I was very nearly opening the window, and putting you out into the snow! And you'd have deserved it, you
little mischievous darling!
~Lewis Carroll

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Re: Sunday Stream [267] ~ Time Out... way out!

Post by mtmynd » January 18th, 2012, 1:00 am

Hola, Veronica! Gracias a usted...
You asked: is the caño (pipe) in use? I'm not sure but there are businesses in the area so my guess is 'si'.

I had to translate "alfajor" and it is in Ingles, "gingerbread". Havana has no other definition here other than un ciudad en Cuba. Is havana another word used for 'alfajor'?

Let me know, amiga mia, por favor, eh? :)

__________
howdy, JT!

Oh yeah! Duality follows us around like a puppy dog and it even leaves messes, altho they are in the mind. hah!

Those folks you listed... died intentionally or thru ignorance of their conditions.. or..?
I wonder how much Siggy's cigars had to do with the cancer in his jaw... must have been a painful, very painful way to go. I can't imagine it! And how that pain would have affected his writing..! What book was that?

I read the Amondawa article. I kept wondering while reading it if they know about time or time and space are not linguistically available for them but the thought of some such subject is in their head but without language to share those thoughts?

I remember hearing years ago about the Aborigines that they had no word(s) for yesterday or tomorrow. I accepted that without confirming it. Another aboriginal word-thing I read about when I was a wee lad - the word 'kangaroo' meant to an Aborigine 'I don't know'... an early explorer asked what that animal was upon first seeing it and the native replied 'kangaroo'... meaning he didn't know... what the question was? or what his people called them? (kangaroo)
______________

Hi, Dame! To attempt an answer to your question, I guess we just like to share our knowledge and will share it with anyone we can. We are talkers as D.T. Suzuki said... it's our nature to do so.

The article also made mention of the Amondawa learning Portuguese which they don't reject learning. The end of another era going the way of so many things including cultures and knowledge...
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Re: Sunday Stream [267] ~ Time Out... way out!

Post by Arcadia » January 18th, 2012, 12:51 pm

Cecil: in fact it´s "Havanna" and it´s a trademark (I heard it was sold some years ago, so no idea if the capitals are still argentinian or not... :roll: ). Also I don´t know if the alfajores (my favourite ones are the chocolate ones or the dulce de leche copos!) have something to do with ginger, though...! :lol: but they are delicious, anyway!!!!! :wink:

http://www.havanna.com.ar/

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Re: Sunday Stream [267] ~ Time Out... way out!

Post by mtmynd » January 18th, 2012, 4:11 pm

Gracias, 'V'... I went to the website and they offer an Ingles version. Now I understand! It dulces! ... and they sound deliciosa. :)
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Re: Sunday Stream [267] ~ Time Out... way out!

Post by Artguy » January 19th, 2012, 6:16 pm

I just don't have enough time to paint everything that falls of my finger tips. I don't own a watch. I have a neurosis about time. An event in my childhood gave birth to a fear of ever being late. To this day I am ridiculously early for everything. It drives my family nuts, because they are late for everything... Where is the compromise in how we measure those fickle numbers on the disk with arms?

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