Passage of Time

Measuring the passage of time (without using a clock) isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. But since the internet can get into your pants so easily these days, we all rely on the clocks that are so accessible. People follow patterns each and every day and as long as you know them, you can measure time from them.

I was sitting in my living room, watching the super exciting markets open on CNBC. One way I could measure time is by the different activities that take place on TV. The markets open at 7:30 Utah time, so I can judge what time it is by the open and close of the markets each day. The large window is also an easy judge because by watching the sun get lower it I can easily watch time pass. I mean cowboys and farmers have been doing it for hundreds of years...how hard is it to really look outside?

The coming and going of my roommates and the coming and going of other people in the apartment can show me what time is roughly. Usually my roommates will come home at 5:00pm to eat dinner, and at 7:00pm they will disappear for a few hours. The last roommate to return and sleep consistently gets home at 3am.(I mean at least he's consistent)

The amount of dust that collects on things will be my long term clock. Each week a fine layer of dust covers everything that isn’t touched. And I can tell how long my OCD hasn't kicked in by looking at the dust that covers everything in my apartment. So I could judge by the amount of dust, how long I’d been sitting.

How hungry I get, how much weight I lose, the length of my hair and fingernails. I mean eventually I'll start to look like Jean Valjean fresh out of prison.

All these things can show me the hours and days that go by, if I were to stay in place.

One thing I notice is that I measure time by the amount of things I need to do each day. Rarely do I measure it by the calm passing of just the sun. We're always to busy to notice this and by the time we look at the world around us it's dark and we sleep, ready to run around for the next day. We follow a pattern that keeps us from noticing the things around us. 

-Dallin Morris