it's time.

it seems to me that it's the most consistent thing that exists for each one of us. our time. why for each of us? well, because it's different for each of us, of course. if we're going to really get into it, it's different for every single elementary particle that makes each of us up, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll stop at the personal level.

so how is time different for each of us? thanks to einstein, the population at large was presented with a theory of the physical universe, aptly named 'relativity' ('special' relativity in this case, to be accurate.) we won't get into the gritty details of transformations, tensors, space-time diagrams , and the like, because they're not necessary. what is necessary? well, only the two simple postulates of special relativity, worded here so that hopefully all who read it might understand.

.....1. The laws of physics are the same for all things moving at a constant
..........velocity relative to each other (this includes thing that aren't moving,
..........their velocity being constant at zero!)

.....2. The speed of light is defined to be the exact same, denoted 'c', for all
..........observers, regardless of reference frame.

and thus, our understanding of the universe was changed forever. from these two simple statements, our classical interpretation of the universe was rendered obsolete and terminally short-sighted. (although it is duly noted that the ingenious work of our scientist forefathers is the basis for everything we do know. as the brilliant sir isaac newton so modestly put it, 'if i have seen farther than others, it is because i stood on the shoulders of giants.')

so why were these two statements so revolutionary? because they re-defined time as being relative, not absolute. until that point, time had been something that ran independently of everything else. time was the same for every person on earth, and for every atom in every corner of the universe. and then, it was not.

so why did time have to change? well, if every observer in every reference frame is to measure the speed of light with the exact same value, then something has to change. time has to change. space has to change. the universe has to change. (for the sake of brevity, this isn't an explanation of why these changes are necessary, but a presentation of the fact that they are. if you're at all interested in the topic, there are countless books on relativity available at bookstores everywhere, so i implore you to read, learn, and understand.)

that being said, time is unique for every infinitesimal bit of matter in this universe. from the relativist perspective, the faster you move, the slower an outside observer sees your clock running. you, of course, see it as running perfectly fine. and as you gain velocity, you begin to shrink in the direction of motion. but again, to yourself, you appear perfectly normal and proportional. but that's not all. your mass begins to increase in proportion to the square of your velocity. though you don't notice anything changing at all. thanks to the second postulate of reltivity, though, you'll never be able to reach light speed, because your mass approaches infinity as your velocity approaches 'c'. no matter how much energy you pour into propelling yourself ever-faster, you'll never make it. it's simply not possible. light will always leap away from you at an amazing 300,000 km/h, no matter how hard you try to catch up with it.

and of course, none of this helps us to truly understand or manage our time any better. in the midst of pain and adversity, time runs ever slowly regardless of how relativistically slow we ourselves move. in experiencing joy and love, time runs ever quickly, despite our most intense efforts to slow it. we try so desperately to hold on to moments in time, and yet they escape our grasp and move from us unimpeded by our hopes and wishes. were we to try and freeze time, we'd exhaust the energy of the universe before we'd even come close. nay, time only freezes for light itself. for light there exists no such thing as time.

there's never enough time. not enough to spend with the people we love. to do the things that we enjoy doing. to accomplish everything we aspire to achieve. to see everything we want to see. to experience what we wish we could. to live for as long as we wish we could.

and yet we have all the time in the world. perhaps in the end that's all we really do have. it's something that no one or thing can steal away from us. no matter what happens, our time is just that. ours. unique to each of us and unaffected by all except us ourselves, it lies ever pure and ever constant. in realtivity that is what's called 'proper time'. the time measured by an observer in the rest frame of that observer. you measure your own proper time, and that time is yours. pure, constant. the time of everything else in the universe is different. a near-infinite number of clocks running at a near-infinite range of speeds, resulting in a near-infinite number of unique temporal existences - always changing, speeding up, slowing down. everything so incredibly different and unique, yet tied so inextricably together by the ubiquity of both the nature and source of that uniqueness.

when you truly understand this, it seems to me that it's impossible not to be absolutely amazed.

here's to you living a long and happy proper time,
jh..