Timeless Moments

In this world, life and time are intimately entwined. "To try to imagine disentangling them," as Michael Clune observes in the Chronicle Review, "is like trying to imagine a melody of one note." And yet we all have, at one time or another, if only for a moment ― a moment that seemed much longer. The effort to counteract time, by poets or lovers, is twofold: a sensed slowing of time accompanying an intensely vivid perception and the persistence of that intensity. To achieve what Schiller called "annulling time within time" may elude us in the end, but isn't that is true of almost every worthwhile pursuit? Clune's essay is entitled "The Quest for Permanent Novelty," but, as in the search for the Holy Grail, what we seek is not new but eternal. ❦

Tempus Non Fugit

Time waits for no man, they say, but will man wait for time? “If we assume that networks will continue to get faster,” cyber analyst Nicholas Carr writes in response to Edge's 2013 inquiry, “we can also conclude that we'll become more and more impatient, more and more intolerant of even microseconds of delay.” Accordingly, Carr continues “we'll be less likely to experience anything that requires us to wait, that doesn't provide us with instant gratification.” In short, grown men shall act as peevish toddlers throwing temper tantrums when their appetites are not sated immediately.  The Patience Deficit