Stretching time

Put simply, one of the facets of relativity is that time varies with speed. Except that the idea time is quicker or slower depending on how fast things move is rather academic, at least at the kind of speeds humans can manage.

With modern digital clocks there isn't even a change as a clock spring winds down, and for a few pounds you can get a timepiece which will be amazingly accurate. There are radio controlled clocks that update themselves from signals sent by atomic clocks and which will even adjust for daylight saving all by themselves.

So given that time is readily available and, for practical purposes, remarkably constant why do we speak about it as though it comes in all shapes and sizes?

"A few short hours" is a typical phrase, as used to emphasise the speed of travel.  Since when did we have short hours, or long days for that matter - I have recollections of a brand of chocolate being stirred "for two long days" in order to give it a superior taste. In Scotland, interruptions are often made by politely asking if you can disturb someone for a "wee second", as if a second wasn't short enough as it is.

It isn't time that is varying in these everyday sayings, it is our perception of time. Holidays seem too short, as do weekends, as does life itself when making an excuse to avoid something: "Life's too short to....", (fill in your own pet hate here).  Something boring, on the other hand, "takes an age", or even "forever".

Why are we so keen to wish away our week so as to get to the fleeting time off at the weekend?  If time were endless then maybe it wouldn't matter if we wasted an hour here, or a week there.  The trouble is time is not endless, it's finite, at least from a human perspective. It lasts the regulation three score years and ten, or until you blindly step into the road and meet the proverbial bus on the way home from work. "Meet" as used here is a messy one-off event and distinctly different from catching the bus, which you can do as often as you like.

Perhaps there is something to be said for enjoying time for what it is: the here and now. Time past has gone; future time may not arrive for some of us in the short term, and for all of us in the long term. Living in the moment and enjoying with gratitude the good parts of whatever we are doing, and wherever we are doing it seems like a good game plan for life. And yes, there are obvious differences in circumstances for each of us, but they are relative too. In the words of that well known saying on life, "Two men looked through prison bars, one saw mud and the other saw stars".   Stars works for me.

Henry Ford had the right idea

Mr Henry Ford, so the story goes, offered a somewhat limited choice of colour for his automobiles; black, take it or leave it. Today's much wider choice in so many areas of life has its downside.

Back in my youth the local cinema, the Rosum, had one screen. So at any one time there was one film on offer and if you didn't care to watch that one you found something else to do. There were, of course several cinemas around at that time so you always had the option of 'going to the pictures' somewhere in a different part of town. I don't remember much about the films but I vaguely remember the progamme having two parts with the main film as the second part. I do recall tubs of ice cream and bags of sticky popcorn being sold by a lady carrying a tray with a strap that looped around her neck. I also remember the national anthem being played at the end of the evening during which you were supposed to stand and listen, though many simply stood and left. The national anthem was played right at the end of an evening's TV viewing too. I wonder if anyone stood for that if they were still watching.

TV back then would have suited Mr Ford well with it's one channel and any colour you like so long as it was black (and white). A second channel was added at a later date by means of a set-top box with a clunky switch that let you choose the one you wanted to watch. Even when years later the number of channels had doubled again to four it was still relatively simple to make a choice.

I wonder what the illustrious car maker would have made of iTunes and the complication it adds to selecting a film. Apple's film rental system is convenient: I can download a film, I have plenty of time to watch it, and I don't have to return it or face a surcharge. What with the trailers right there a click away and the chance to see what the critics, and indeed the average punter, made of each one through film review sites, I have everything I need to make an informed choice. Well that's the theory anyway.

There can be such a thing as too much choice, and definitely too much information. I've known films where the critics and joe punter have given a rating well over 90% and I've struggled to make sense of the film. Equally, there have been films I've enjoyed a lot with very low ratings. Sometimes the ratings confirm the hunch, sometimes they just confuse. Today they confused. It should not take that long to pick a film - but what if you want avoid downloading another lemon or missing out on another hit (even if you've never heard of the film or the actors in it).

Well.... what's the worst that can happen?

By far the worst thing is nigh on two hours spent sticking doggedly to a film that even after 30 minutes was going nowhere - 90% ratings can be wrong. Go with the hunch, pick the film, and download it. If it entertains then be entertained; if the film bores you to tears turn it off and do something else. The main thing is to do SOMETHING. Something, that is, other than spending an age comparing form on a couple of hundred films.

Henry Ford may have limited the choice but he sure made deciding a lot easier.