Week One: Time

Everything has a beginning; life, the planet you call home, the universe itself—everything started somewhere. The only thing older than the universe itself is Time. Time is constantly moving forward; without it, nothing could happen. Without it, species would not adapt, plants would not grow, and our planet itself would simply cease to exist. Time can move at a slow crawl, or it can leap forward in the blink of an eye—some even say that it can go backward.

              Now, what is the meaning of this thing that has existed since before even humankind? That is a very tricky question to answer. Is it simply the numbers seen on a clock? Is it that step that takes your further and further through life each time you set your foot down? Is it something indefinite that loops around and back into itself without any true destination? There is no single answer to this question, and there never truly will be.

              The Code of Time is unbreakable; no human being, no matter how far into what we have come to call the “future” they are, nor the intelligence that they hold, will ever be able to learn everything there is to know of time. It is a mysterious entity that teases; coming so close to being figured out, and then another thing pops up seemingly out of nowhere that forces us to start over again and again from an obstacle we simply cannot seem to bypass. That obstacle? We still do not know what Time itself truly is.

              Time is like a fox; wily and sly, always able to slip past even the most focused without notice. It is something taken for granted by millions, something many do not truly hold care for so long as they still have it. No one cares about the seconds that tick by; not until it comes to that final moment in their life, when they are about to take that final breath. They do not care until a loved one’s eyes glaze over, until that hand so loosely holding theirs slackens and falls with fingertips gently brushing over the ground. It is not until that final moment that they begin caring; it is that final moment they can never forget.

              But why must it always come to a death being what reminds someone that time just isn’t fair? Time has no ally, but nor does it have an enemy; it coexists peacefully with Creation and with Destruction, with Life and with Death.

              Everyone thinks that they can beat it, outsmart it, simply stay even one step ahead. They do not realize that it is everywhere—forward and back; the past, present, and future; that it lives in every breath that you take. It cannot be beaten because it is but a single entity older and larger than our very universe; cannot be outsmarted because we cannot understand it. We can’t stay even the smallest step ahead because it has already reached every star of every galaxy before your heart can even finish whatever beat it is currently on.

              Can you say that you understand it? If you can, you are telling a terrible lie because you cannot comprehend just the simple age of Time. No one can truly comprehend it because it is not something that can truly be traced as fossils and rocks can be; it is something that we cannot see, feel, or hear, yet it is still before us, surrounding us.

              But, in the same, does time truly exist? Or is it just something created by the human mind to try bringing balance? One might argue that it certainly is a real thing, make a gesture at a clock to prove their point or take note of a fossil and how it can be dated back. Yet, if you truly think about it, real things can be touched, heard, seen—yet this thing we call Time simply cannot.

              If Time truly is real, then wouldn’t we be able to control it? Wouldn’t we be able to find some way to “turn back the clock”?

              Is Time an entity older than the very universe, or just simply a figment of our imaginations?