The Clock Paradox
The changing of the seasons and the biennial shift of the end of daylight savings this past weekend has me pondering the concept of time. I’ve been reading Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World (1983) by Harvard scholar David Landes, who passed away this past August. Revolution in Time traces the history of the modern clock with its origins in Western Europe during the 12thCentury. First used as a device to keep busy Medieval monasteries running efficiently, clocks alerted monks to ring bells to signal their brethren to go to “the chapel, the library, the writing room (scriptorium), the fields, the mills, mines, the workshops, the laundry, (or) the kitchen” (page 68). From the dawn of time, the majority of souls had absolutely no need to measure time. They simply moved in natural, circular cycles and seasons such as “daybreak, sunrise, noon, sunset or darkness . . . the sequence of tasks filled the day and when night fell and the animals were cooped or stabled, parents and children ate their evening meal and went tired to bed, to wake the next morning with the birds and beasts to start another day” (page 1).
Time measurement is not a natural phenomenon. It disconnects us from our natural rhythms and forces a sense of living outside of the “moment”. We can lose ourselves in the race to meet deadlines, achieve results or just keep pace. However, without the widely agreed upon system of time measurement—the industrial revolution and modern world we know today would not have been possible. Little could be counted on, measured or completed with any precision. Mass productivity would not be impossible.
This tension between our natural rhythm or living in the moment and modern precision and productivity is a paradox. Those of us good at managing our time only end up doing more and more and end up (usually) neglecting the people or purpose that is most important to us. Clocks and the concept of time were profoundly important to the development of the human race but have also contributed to the loss of the human soul.
tomvansaghi 