Beings in Time

Being a history major, it's often easy to lose concept of time. That may not make sense to some of you, who would assume that history majors have a more solid concept of time due to the fact that we deal in dates. That assumption is false. Rather than dealing in dates, we deal in concepts of time. It is not so easy as one would think to establish a timeline of events on the spot. Because we tend to think about the world in general as a series of events, one after the other, it's easy to compress thousands of years into a single thought. I am guilty of doing that in my own life. I get so caught up in the moment, what's going on right now, that I fail to think too far into the future. Simple manifestations of this problem include forgetting to pay bills because I didn't realize it was, in fact, the middle of April. However more complex problems arise out of this because I fail to notice how much people change over time. For instance, when I think of my cousin Cassidy, I think of her as a six or seven year old child. But she is now fourteen and is rapidly becoming a young lady. This is a problem when you are involved in any sort of significant relationship with any other person. I have failed to notice how much Mark has changed over the last six years. I have failed to notice how much I have changed. Change sneaks up on you when you aren't looking for it. People I once loved dearly I now pass on the street like two ships in the night. And it often never occurs to me that we haven't spoken in years. It is a sad symptom of a greater problem. The problem is that we are beings in time but we are not focused on the passage of it. We don't feel the passage of time because we are locked in it, and so we live our lives oblivious to the forces that shape us and change us. And at some point we look around and notice that the temples of our lives are in severe disrepair and we don't know where to start. I only hope that I can fix my temple before it's too late.