perfidy

You're getting old, GL.

but in an entirely entertaining way!

I guess I am getting old.

I was about 14 when that movie came out, but did not exist- by a fair margin- when "Disraeli Gears" was released.

It's like the time I was trying to communicate a concept with a student once. I was a TA for some history class or other, and for some reason thought that drawing a comparison to the Berlin Wall coming down might be helpful in making a point.

It wasn't until afterward that I realized, well stupid of course she wasn't excited or interested in the Berlin Wall coming down because she was about 7 years old then. I cared about graham crackers and chocolate milk and cartoons when I was 7, not the fucking Red Menace.

I do the same thing all the time. Returning home from my grandfather's funeral last weekend, I remembered my earliest memories of my grandparents, when I was about three, and how old I thought they were. When I was three, Grandpa was 52 -- younger than both of my parents are now. Yikes.

Similarly, I'll sometimes hear some 80s chestnut on the radio, and my wife and I will be bopping along, and I'll turn to her and say, "You know, this song is as old now as 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' was when we were in high school." That's usually good for a slap.

I remember reading an explanation recently for why time seems to speed up as you get older. Remember the truly endless summers of your childhood? Turns out perception is fact.

By the time you're out of your teens (according to this dimly remembered and currently unsourceable article), you've lived 70% of your life in experiential terms-- that is, much of the rest of your days will be spent doing things you've done before. The practical effect of this is to make it seem like as you age, time moves faster, because less happens to you that is worthy of note or memory.

Interesting, and sad.

Myself, I'm stuck in a permanent 1992 of the mind. I cannot-- CANNOT-- get it through my head that Whitesnake was big almost twenty years ago, or there's as much time between me and "Sweet Child of Mine" as there is between "Appetite for Destruction" and "Let It Be."

Maybe it's because I turn 30 this year, but I've been having these moments of temporal vertigo more often than I used to.

J,
Music or other such references will make a man nutty if he dwells on it.

I saw GnR in Deutschland ca 1992. That was 12 years ago. 12 years before that I was in 3d grade and just this side of orgasmic over "The Empire Strikes Back". I dug Blondie too, but that's another story. Debby Harry that is, not Dagwood's ol' lady.

I saw Whitesnake open for Motley Crue ca 1987. That was 17 years ago. Seven-goddamn-teen years. 17 years before that I did not exist, to the best of my recollection and available documentary evidence.

Another angle, besides popular culture comparisons, is through historical events. Like, 2004 is about as far removed from the end of the Vietnam War as that war was from the end of WW2. You have to fudge a bit, but it's close enough.

For me it was the first time I met a 21 year old woman in a bar and realized I remembered the year she was born and remembered the year well because I was already an adult.

Since we're on music ... the distance between the effective dawn of electrical recording and Jerry Garcia recording old-time songs for Old and in the Way is equidistant to today. 40 years ... give or take a few.

Dang, what an interesting, if too-short bunch of thoughts to read. Thanks to the lot of you.

Now, not to sound like your Dad (since, while I'm technically old enough to be the father of most of you, but not GuitarPicker, and am not, in fact the father of anyone reading this thread, unless you're the 9-year old angel sleeping downstairs), but I was a bit older than you boys before the thoughts you're thinking ever even hit me. I was too busy kicking ass (and having my ass kicked) in business, had not a care in the world, had no wife and no daughter, and thought I'd never get old.

Wrong.

And having a kid accelerates it, though I never knew quite why. Johno helpfully provides the answer, and if I were to paraphrase it to my circumstances, it would look like this: My daughter spends her days doing stuff I've done before. It's quite interesting, mind you, but interesting in a way far different than it was when I was discovering it personally.

Johno, I'd add that the effect acclerates too - each successive year is a smaller fraction of your total life so far. Patton, my son is a year old (as of a few days ago) and I can testify that the last year was teh quickest in memory.

i think that what you're experiencing is the vulger conception of time...time as a succession of 'now time.' However, time isn't linear; we live in the past the present and the future. Time is not what's displayed on a clock; time is disclosed by the finitude of our existence and our own possibility of no-longer-being-possible.

My most recent moment was about 2 weeks ago with a girlfriend. We went clubbing and for some reason the bar had '80s music. A song came on from the early 90's. My friend turns me to me and says 'I remember I was 9 when this song came out!' I just looked at her and told her, 'I was 16 when it came out.' Hooray for 30.

TAM,
I smell what you're stepping in. But I think the "vulgar" conception is the one that is most readily apparent and scary.

To me, a clock or other timepiece is really a brief record or commuicator of elapsed time. Any information we draw from that passage usually has to do with an appointment, whether with the doctor, the plane, the TV show, work, what have you. Clocks keep us "on time" for everywhere we have to be, and tell us when we're late.

And indicate when we'll be dead.

One way to get really down is to set your digital media player of choice so that it counts down as a song is played, displaying time remaining. Try it. Watch the digits count backwards. And remember that as the song closes in on "0:00", you are too. Four minutes closer to death.

If you want to be exceptionally grim, peep the deathclock: [url=http://www.deathclock.com/]http://www.deathclock.com/[/url]

I have well under 1 million seconds to go.

And counting.

GL:

Not to be an optimist on your behalf, or anything like that, but would I be wrong to suggest that the "million" above might better begin with a "b"?

Or have I misunderanalyzed your current age? Did you use the "Sadistic" setting?

I have, on the pessimistic setting, 200 megaseconds left.

The birth of my son has led to numerous thoughts along these lines. Obviously, the century where I spent most of my life will be entirely alien to him, as the nineteenth century was to me. He'll go to college in the fall of 2021. Considering that my wife is six years younger than me, it is entirely possible that his future wife might not even be born in this decade.

Johno and I once had a conversation about the end of history - on a personal level. It turns out that the date that history segued into current events was April 30 for both of us, though four years apart. He remembered one of the days of the Iran hostage crisis, I remembered the evacuation from Saigon. The year when John goes through this will probably be 2010. And I'll be 41.

Eh.

Patton,
Yup, you're right. Billion it is. Or, rather, isn't in this instance.

And I copped to "pessimist", but not "sadist".

B,
Your reasoning is sound. And should hold, unless you start travelling at a healthy fraction of C.

If a healthy fraction of speed of light ain't achievable there's always prison. I'll bet 30 days in solitary feels a lot longer than 30 days on the outside.

End of history. Dunno. The Watergate hearings, maybe? Anything after Sam Ervin is solidly in the memory banks. I was overseas in the lands without TV so I missed all the cool Apollo shots.

I'm actually enjoying how fast the seasons change now. It's kinda cool.

Johno's point about us having already lived thru 70% of our experimental
life is a good one (and really made me think), but he fails to point out what has been replaced: opportunity. I don't think that its a change in our experimental nature, its just that we have too much shit going on in our lives that keeps us from new experiences. Our lives are completely
organized around things that we'd rather not do. Like setting the alarm
for 5:30 am to get up for work. "Can't wait for it to be Friday." "Can't
wait for payday." "Gotta get my car inspected, make a run to home Depot,
mow the lawn, change my oil, do my bills, call this person for.... blah
blah blah..." And that's your free time.

Have you ever been on a vacation where you lost track of what day it is (I mean like "Is it Tuesday or Friday??")? I haven't, because I know that come Saturday or Sunday, I've got to get back to the real world. So much for temporary experimental living. In fact, most of us need a couple of days just to wind down to START to enjoy
ourselves. And I am the type of person who has no trouble sitting around, remote in hand, beer within reach, with thumb securely in butt.

Tossing your watch like Peter Fonda is a rare reality for most of us. And yes, sounding like the adult that I am, there's alot more important shit on
your mind now that you ever had as a teen -- so much so that you have
trouble remembering stuff. I've lost track of the times that I've been told
about weekend plans, only to be surprised the day of with "I told you we were going to....." I usually get this blank Ronald Reagan look on my
face, mainly because to my recollection, this is the first time I've heard any of it.

There's a great line from Field of Dreams. Kevin Costner talks about his father (knowing that opportunities and dreams were given up or had passed his father by) and states something like "I wish I had known him before life had worn him down." Sorry Kevin, it is inevitable: we all get worn down too soon.

A billion seconds and counting.

Quite sobering responses to GL's post. Having said that and being able to relate to most of you on the cusp/just 30, I feel inspired to do something more meaningful with my life.

Thank you, Dr. Phil!

Steve Martin used to have a comedy bit about what maturity is - he said, "It's not so much getting wiser, it's getting tired. Someone comes up and says, 'Hey! let's try this new thing!' [sound of creaky door slamming shut]"

OtherShoe, in your examples, you kept using the phrase, "Can't wait." Looking back, this has to be the saddest phrase in the human experience, short of only, "If only." Can't wait applies not just in the day to day, but on the larger scale. "Can't wait til I can drive." "Can't wait til I'm 21." "Can't wait til..."

Now I have most of the things I couldn't wait to have. All that time wasted not being able to wait. But looking forward to things keeps us going, and able to put up with all the petty (and not so petty) annoyances, but does distract us from what is going on <i>right now<i>. My son is walking now, and I already think I didn't spend enough time enjoying it when he was learning to crawl. Hurricane Isabel was a blessing, really. We lost power for seven days, and in effect I had a six day weekend. With no distractions, no TV, no work, nothing, I actually got to spend time with my family unit. I wish we'd get another one.

Enough maundering. I have work to do.