I greet all eyes with these fresh new words for a new year. Every New Year there is this rekindling of fascination in how different human cultures monitor and relate to the passing of time.
Clocks, calendars, dances and festivals are just some of various methods in which time can be boxed or stretched, like fibers in a rug being dusted off. All across the world we celebrated the sense of a new beginning, much like spring is a renewal in energy in ourselves and the leafless plants around us.
It is interesting to note that we all do not apply 2002 to locate ourselves on the map of time. The year 2002 is specific to how Christians see time. For Muslims it is the year 1380, for Mayans it is 5115 and it is 5763 for Jews.
How we see and measure the flow of time fountains out from our vision of ourselves in the drama of society. When we see ourselves moving in a linear direction, in a direction of "progress," the past is easily viewed as a stepping stone to reach a better place.
The past becomes this barren landscape, pock-marked with caves, hiding cave men and we become the enlightened ones of tomorrow standing more erect. Wedding a linear view of time with the ever-growing-economy language of progress, gives the perception that technological advancements have made the world more harmonious and peaceful. But is society truly benefiting from the fruits of technology? Have our social understandings, relationships and level of equality been as enhanced as the latest and fastest silicone chip?
This is a point easily disputed if you visit the shanty-town ghettoes across the world, violently tucked away from mega-resort hotels with luxurious well-watered golf courses. The idea of progress runs out of gas and gets a flat tire when we consider how these shanty towns now cover land once giving rise to orchards and gardens that fed large civilizations.
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However, not all views of time are linear nor is the concept of progress, with the present social and environmental realities, unanimously seen as the right descriptor of our situation. I have met many who say they are tired of living for time and not by time, just as they say they are tired of living to work as opposed to working to live. Maybe we say that time goes by fast because computers, cell phones and watches are constantly reminding us of time.
And maybe we say time flies faster when we are having fun because our feelings, when guided with the stuff that makes laughter, can transcend the visible and invisible boundaries we have created for ourselves. Modern technology might be praised for its ability to give us more "leisure" time, which is taught as a "golden rule" of all great civilizations, but it does not hide the sad fact that most of us know almost nothing about foreign relations or how to raise and educate our children.
We can however, recite the details of movies or the latest sitcom drama. With all this leisure time, I wonder why more and more people are working two jobs in order to survive.
To me, time is not just the slow shifting of numbers on our calendars. Time is not just this negative narrative of old age nor this idea that we are more advanced and better off today than we have ever been. The avenues and speed of communication might have improved, but is what we are saying and doing showing its signs of such progress?
Every day is a New Year marked by what you learn and what you give; from sleep, to open eyes, to sleep. Knowing that our histories and cultures extend much further than 2002 years ago, and much deeper than our common text-book versions, we should not to be fooled into believing that time is linear or is progress the anthem that will lead us into tomorrow.
Life is much more meaningful than material aggrandizement or the never ending models of cars that we can come up with.
by Maceo Carrillo Martinet
Daily Lobo Columnist
Questions, comments or suggestions can be sent to Maceo Carrillo Martinet at conuco3@unm.edu.
