Mankind is fascinated by time

Tom dreamed of running, faster and faster, for he had to be at the gate before the closing time.

Sue had recurring dreams of missing her airline flight. Although her watch said she had a minute to spare, she reached the tunnel just as the flight attendant closed the door and the plane taxied down the runway.

Mary’s was a nightmare. She always got to the ship just as the whistle blew, and it moved away. She watched the passengers wave from the deck.

Unusual dreams? Not really. If you feel time constraints, live by the clock and think a lot about both the past and future, your feelings are typical of those mankind in general has been feeling for many, many centuries.

Man’s dreams of missing travel departures, racing in a car, running to an appointment or being late for an important meeting reveal his subconscious awareness of time and time’s control over his destiny. His dreams are so intense they become nightmares which awaken him shaking and frightened.

Primitive man had neither a mechanical clock nor a calendar on the wall of his cave, but he measured time. His day began at sunrise and ended at sunset. He watched the skies and studied the stars and constellations, giving them names of gods, goddesses and animals. Legends grew around each grouping.

Fairy tales, folklore and myths illustrate man’s concern and anxiety about the element of time. Cinderella had to return before midnight or her coach would turn into a pumpkin. In Rumpelstiltskin, the miller’s daughter had to spin straw into gold before dawn, or she would die.

It was some time before the clock or a watch was invented, but man used sundials and water clocks for measuring the hours of the day and developed a calendar for counting the days and the months of the year.

Geological and paleontological discoveries revealed the age of the Earth, which was then estimated, revised and re-estimated until its antiquity figure grew greater and greater. Excavating and digging, it became increasingly difficult for man to understand that civilizations had risen and fallen many times before him and would do so many more times before the end of time.

Anxiety and interest in time have always intrigued mankind, stirring his imagination to make time work for him and to encourage him to more accurately measure it. The vastness of space has made man aware that measurements of time are difficult to understand. When Albert Einstein wrote his theory of relativity man again wondered. Is time a fourth dimension? Science fiction writers love to explore past and future while astronomers speak of light years between celestial bodies. The generation born after the explosion of the atom is acutely aware of nuclear extinction.

There is a certain type of anxiety directed at the immediate future, and the increasingly acute awareness of the awesome stretches of time produce a greater anxiety. When did it all begin and when will it all end? Psychologists and chronologists studying man’s interest in time frames see one advantage to time anxiety. As man uncovers more antiquities of the past and deciphers more of the ancient recordings, he sees a common bond among all people. We are all fascinated by time.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1988