Does time travel?
July 19 2021
Does time travel?
And if it it does, where does it go?
I thought about “Father time” and what came to mind was the face of a clock. This book I had as a child had a picture of a big old clock in the village and talked about how the clock stopped. All the people in the book did not have faces. But the clock had a face.
I like the analogy of a clock to humanity, and life and this clock helped me realize something. People do not travel through time in the way that it is portrayed in movies. And when time “stops” it is because there are no “faces” to look at any more. A ticking, or forward moving clock, always has a new “face”. Also a clock does not determine our behavior, like in the story, our freely chosen behavior determines the “faces” of the clock.
So, as opposed to my children's book where people are insignificant and have no faces and the clock is the only face that is significant, instead of traveling THROUGH time, people ARE the face of time, like how a clock has many “faces” and each face represents a different exact time. Free acting individual faces are important and are the essence of time, in my clock analogy. And the hands can only “move forward”…which means that we each can only “progress” when we are moving forward or choosing to do GOOD with regard to the other “faces” represented by the next second, minute or hour (other human beings close to us).
By knowing that a clock has specific purposeful forward movements we can perhaps “predict” some of what can be expected in the future, but we cannot go backward or fast forward or change “time” and we are not “traveling through time”, we can only be the face of it. We cannot “choose” for other people, as freedom gives us the ability to choose and love for each other compels us to choose good.
The concept of “being” only good, would then cause forward movement of the “hands” which would imply the passing of time, however the unstoppable “forward movement” of time, by the hands, would also imply that timelessness (agelessness) endures for one who is doing only good because each individuals usefulness coexists with freely chosen forward progress.
Ironically, he one thing that causes agelessness (timelessness), would seem to be opposite of what would cause it…the forward movement of hands or the passing of time (a mirror or the reverse of what is real seems to be the truth).
And though we human beings are the only “face” of the clock or watch, what is “real” or what we can actually “see” is when there is progress forward (of the hands), or because of the good that we freely choose to do.
The birth of a new child is inherently good because that birth represents a new “face” as the equivalent of each new face on a clock when hands move forward. But once a child is born, what does it mean THEN, to progress or do good? A child learns to distinguish good from evil the same way light in a room is distinguished from darkness, which is the absence of light. Darkness can never overpower light in a room. Light allows us to see.
It is important to teach children to choose to do good, and we should not confuse them or blur the lines between good and bad, making it more difficult for children to see the good they were intended to do. We do not “blur the lines” try to be politically correct (or be fifty shades of grey) which could teach children that it is sometimes ok to walk in front of a moving car or that is it sometimes ok to play with matches unsupervised. We have, instead, concrete examples of what is good and what is bad for a reason, and that reason is “progress” is the law of the land.
Telling children that bad is sometimes ok is not to “protech” them (play on words intended)..and is not correct.Protect them with knowledge of what is good, perfect, pure and true. Other peoples’ “blurred” judgement calls or beliefs, cannot hurt children and “bad” cannot hurt a child either unless the child chooses it.
For example, a child who has never been taught to stay out of the streets can choose to play in them, but is much more likely to get hit by a car. But a child who clearly trusts parents because of the love poured upon them, will trust what the parent says about staying out of the street and will choose to do good, and listen to their parents, which benefits them individually, and benefits others.
A parent who tries to be politically “correct”, fails to teach kids who play in the street while there are moving cars, that it is wrong ( perhaps because these parents are catering to people who wish to blur the lines between light and dark, and maybe these are the very people who feel guilty about their own bad choices). This failure by parents to teach kids clearly, makes it EASIER for a child to choose dangerous or bad options, which hurts the child, much more than it hurts the parent.
Good behaviors (or forward movement of the hands of time) come from good choices, and good choices come from believing in good as the only choice in progress hopefully as presented to us growing up by loving parents. We must all learn to be very discriminating, towards choosing only good.
Good and bad need to be as clearly defined as light and dark in order for children to progress in good. Parents who are afraid to be clear cut, in this regard, because they do not want to be “judgemental”, surely must know that “judgement” from others never caused a child to get run over, or burnt by a fire.
Children do not need to be confused about good and bad and we have laws and rules and most importantly we have the bible and the ten commandments to help us know, and teach children how to children know and understand what good is and that good always means progress…like in a forward moving clock analogy.
When we do not do good, we cannot “see” it, just like we cannot see time go backwards, and the absence of good or darkness, like the absence of light, cannot be seen. Bad choices are like the absent of light and are not represented in the face of “time” because the hands of a clock do not document any movement backwards. There is no power in a bad choice to create forward movement…just like there is no power in darkness to overpower light in a room. When the light goes on, darkness disappears…. but darkness cannot make a light disappear.
By doing greater and greater good with regards to humanity, we do not “hurry” the passage of time, but instead we assure our own permanence or usefulness because of our ability to stimulate forward progress.
The hands of a watch can be black or white, large or small, but they all have the ability to move forward to create a new face. But we all know that the whole time the hands are moving forward around on the face of a clock, the clock is not going anywhere..because time does not travel.
The clock is stationary. New faces on the clock are like new ideas in the form of new people. They do not happen because time is “traveling”, they happen because the whole purpose of the hands are to move forward so they do. There can never be too many new “faces” on a clock, a clock hands can move forward infinitely without ever taking a single step or without occupying more “space” and yet each “face” is critically important and necessary.
Thus over population (too many faces) is a myth or a moot point. Evil having any power in “time” is also moot. Evil cannot cause “hands” to move forward because forward movement is positive not negative. The only power a clock has is when its hands move forward.
With each new life or birth, the face of the clock is new, but after that documented point or face, individual actions towards good (moving forward, not backwards) is the only thing that creates progress and we cannot make those positive choices for others, they must understand and make them for themselves. Our face will remain the same, but it is our choices that bring continued forward movement when we choose good.
What about things frozen in time? Perhaps with each good deed presented by each forward moving hand, evil is what is effectively kept frozen in time? The ability to keep evil frozen requires individual effort toward choosing good which is always visible, and this is very important and useful to know. We do not have to worry that we must watch a clock in order for the hands to move forward, we just know that they will because we know good is the only power that is recognized by the clock to move hands forward.
Continued forward progress or good, ensures the destruction of evil, in the clock analogy because a clocks hands cannot move forward and backward or be positive and negative at the same time.
With regards to evil, there is another childhood tongue twister, “If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch?” Evil can only “watch” but, being negative, is not ever represented as a “face” of time which expresses only positive movements and therefore evil does not have a face. Evil in time, has no power, and “watching” by evil or witches (witches propagate the myth of evil having power) does not threaten us or change or prevent anything good.
“A tik tok pendulum” which travels forward and backwards, in reality is making no progress whatsoever, but the hands of a clock are not stymied are they, and they do not move backwards, they make progress forward.
The spinning forward hands of a clock, making progress while never actually traveling anywhere, are analogous to the earth spinning around on its axis, around the sun, never actually traveling anywhere either. On a tiny scale or on a planetary scale, it is interesting to think about how “time” designated by hands on a clock, goes only consistently forward, without ever occupying any more space on the face of a clock. Physical movement and progress or forward movement are not equivalent.
Though thousands of hours and minutes and seconds have already happened, each face of these are still vital and permanent in the forward “progress” of time. There is an infinity of hours and minutes and seconds that are still to happen in the future and we know of their “faces” of existence because we know that the hands continue to move forward. Good endures.
Perhaps we have heard as children that God is “watching” us, and literally God, in my analogy is the “watch” and we are the many faces of his watch…an eternal unfolding of forward progress, without limit and not requiring any space. It is lovely to think about.
