A lot can happen in a few weeks. The possibilities multiply based on how often you socialize and meet new people and how often you make things happen for yourself. A routine will make any day slower, especially, if much of it is spent alone. Being alone means you’ll spend more time thinking, and if your brain is the kind of brain with a selfishly wild imagination, you’re in for a difficult few weeks.
Otherwise, if you’re lucky enough to be spending your time for a bigger purpose (i.e. outside yourself, coexisting with other humans), you realize that how fast or how slow it runs, is actually relative to many factors. Often, you think things are going by quickly because you are doing too many things according to certain time markers you’ve set for yourself. When the laundry’s done. The minute you arrive your workplace. The last sip from your first cup of coffee. Lunch time. When you finished photocopying. When the e-mail was finally sent. Dinner.
But you can also stretch your time markers to gauge durations. Instead of a second or a moment, time stretches and becomes specific: How long it takes for you to reach his doorstep, or how quickly you can hide your feelings. Or perhaps the few minutes before your cab arrives. The long and silent ride home. The time it takes you to find songs in your music library to compile a thirty-two minute digital mix. Or the time it takes you to write an accompanying reflection about how a lot can happen in a few weeks.
You don’t have any time left for another batch of laundry tonight. But this is a first in a long time, when you’re able to sit down and really think about anything. You’re thinking back on the last few weeks and there are moments you want to rewind, moments you want to fast-forward, and a rare few that you actually want to pause and freeze. These are the moments with someone else, away from your selfishness and away from your imagination. Thanks to your smart phone, you might not have been in the same room. If there was anyone physically there with you, who were you with? Did your eyes ever meet or were they shut with the image of someone else?
You can’t have all of time; you certainly can’t have everything, but you are allowed to keep some things quietly yours.
Digital Mixtape 001 – You Can’t Have Everything