Full disclaimer - may not be worth taking your TIME to read this bit of musing.
The concept of time takes on many different meanings in all of our lives, literally all of the time. On a boat it is ever-present. Schedules and routines are regulated and occur based on some measure of time. Directions and forecasts come to us at predetermined times. One could go on for pages about time. An earlier bit I wrote in this space about Longitude was really just all about TIME.
Important philosophers and thinkers (Galileo, Aristotle, Einstein, Newton, Beemer, Szurek, Lynch, Quinn) tried to define in the fewest words possible the meaning and definition of TIME. Turns out that wasn't so easy. Most agree something has to have a start and a finish and a concept of space for any definition of time to make sense. Without the ability to 'keep' time, longitude doesn't have much of a life. Without the ability to define time universal calculations can't be made, space can't be described but for sure, aging continues. Distances can't be calculated and mealtimes could become confusing without some sort of time metric.
After thinking about this for a while (spirits locker has been empty for weeks) I challenged my captive watchmates on One Ocean to take a piece of paper and draw time. It feels like a tangible entity - we only have time to do this or that; something will 'take time" to make. Andy needs more 'time' to finish his morning blog, make coffee and build something. I don't have time to think about this right now. This is not a good time!
Oo/MTC Volunteer Chris Lynch wrote a very good book, Side Road to Nevada, about time travel, among other things - and gave us a copy for our onboard library. Time plays an important plot part in his well crafted and entertaining story. I'd like to see his drawing of time.
Steve Quinn, another one of those very talented Oo/MTC volunteers, and creator/author of the "Captain Schrader Pants" ( I'm currently wearing the prototype) might like to weigh in on the time subject - at least graphically.
The last time I can remember being puzzled about this thing called time was when I was seven years old and growing up on a small Nebraska farm (yes, we had indoor plumbing, electricity, telephones that didn't work, farm animals and tornados). Thanks to my father I had a swing in a very large tree. It was a "bag" swing, i.e. a burlap bag half-filled with corn or some grain, hanging by a rope from a large branch. At seven I wanted something better, so I cobbled together some wood and metal pieces and made an airplane - wings, open cockpit, tail and propeller. Dad helped me replace the grain sack with my creation. We mounted it higher. It was terrific, then it became a 'paratrooper' transport. I was the paratrooper. With the craft swinging about as high as possible I bailed out, just like in the movies. The parachute didn't open because I didn't have one, the ground/tree landing was solid. I woke up wondering why a tree was actually called a tree. Same for my sister, why was she my sister instead of a tree. This went on for a few hours, wondering who decided what to call anything. The next day I pretended all was right with the world or whatever it was called. Boats seemed safer than planes, go figure. Now this puzzle about time seems to be ringing those same mental bells. Draw time . . . should be easy.
Aboard S/V Ocean Watch, 15 years ago, sailing from Mar del Plata, Argentina to the Falkland Islands we were joined by Warren Buck, sailor, artist, Astrophysicist. I shared as many night watches with him as I could and wondered when he looked at the sky what it was he was seeing and feeling. By his own description his 'day job' was to find, describe and/or calculate the edge of the universe. From the deck of Ocean Watch and looking up I saw stars, planets, constellations and empty dark spaces. My little brain could barely fathom anything about the edge of the universe. I was feeling very much like a head-injured 7 year-old failed paratrooper trying to make sense out of what he had just said. Time, space and names - a Rubik's cube of mind-boggling complications.
Now back to the assigned challenge, draw a graphic representation of time on a piece of paper.
Months after the end of the Ocean Watch/Around the Americas expedition a neatly wrapped package came to me from Warren Buck. Inside the package was a beautiful piece of his artwork, a painting of Ocean Watch sailing on the big Southern Ocean. For me, it was the perfect rendition of something we call Time.
Thank you Warren. I'm still looking up and wondering about the edge of it all.
A little note from the Co-Captain - sometimes someone has a little too much 'time' on his hands!