Is Time Finite or Fluid?

We haven’t left for the trip yet, and I’ve been thinking about the transitory nature of time. I find it useful to think about time as a fluid concept, rather than a rigid structure.

For example, 5 o’clock seems to roll around earlier than it used to. Today for example it arrived at 4:15. It’s a beautiful October day – Indian Summer. I should be taking Guinness for an afternoon walk but instead I feel like basking in the sunshine, looking at the autumn leaves, enjoying a cigar and a glass of Jameson’s.

It’s been more than 10 months since Cathy died, and at times it seems like yesterday, and then other times it seems like it was years ago. Time seems fluid, not fixed.

This trip, of course, depends upon a schedule, because I do like structure. I’m sure many folks embark on this trip without fixed reservations at marinas – Stopping at the end of the day’s run and just dropping the anchor in a nearby anchorage. I enjoy being alone on the hook, it’s peaceful and quiet, and there’s nothing like waking up in a quiet creek with nothing but birdsong to interrupt the silence. But anchoring out comes with certain demands: you have to run the generator to produce 120 V power for the microwave and 240 V power for the heater/air conditioner. Then I have to run Guinness ashore in the dinghy, which means launching the dinghy and hooking up the outboard and so forth. No big deal to be sure, but it’s a lot easier to stay at a marina and hook up the shore power. That way, Guinness gets to walk in the morning in the afternoon, and we’ll get to explore all the pretty towns along the way. It’s a lot more expensive to be sure – it’s like paying for a hotel room every night, but I’m bringing the room with me!

Once we get to Key West, the calendar is blank – we plan to be there for a month with absolutely nothing on the agenda. There’s a dog-friendly beach where I’m sure will spend a lot of our time, and perhaps we’ll take side trips to some of the other keys.

It’s going to get really interesting if we hop over to the Bahamas, because I imagine a completely laid-back lifestyle – swimming snorkeling and long unstructured walks. Time for healing? Perhaps. Certainly time to consider the fluid nature of time.

Even age seems like a more fluid concept me now. I’m 76 years old, but I feel like I’m 66. I am healthy and virile and ready for new adventures. It’s one of the reasons I want to go now, while I can still enjoy it.

Einstein came to a sudden realization: Time is not absolute. In other words, despite our common perception that a second is always a second everywhere in the universe, the rate at which time flows depends upon where you are and how fast you are traveling.

If time is truly fluid, I want to stretch it as long as I can.