Time Travel
A quick note on two different times
In 2018 I travelled alone for the first time.
As I am now on another adventure I'm finding myself remembering random experiences from previous trips.
My intention in sharing them is to revivify whatever truths lay hidden beneath the surface of those murky waters we call experience.
As I write now, the temperature is a warm 36 degrees. We are taking coffee on the terrace overlooking the Bey Mountains of Antalya.
I'm remembering the time I took a taxi ride in from Warsaw Chopina airport in the middle of December 2018 to my residence at Chmielna.
Why on earth I'm remembering this now I have no idea. But perhaps sitting here in the peace and quiet has reminded me of what the world was like before the great pandemic struck the world in 2019.
Now I'm remembering lockdown, the closure of clubs and social life altogether. The years lost to isolation and fear.
A time capsule is a curious invention to me, it assumes we can capture elements of a time in the physical form but I've always thought tine was something we experience. To limit it to its physical form, to isolate it to a few objects only serves to blunten it.
Now a conversation about Melbourne has begun. I can't understand it but it doesn't matter. The fact it's happening is as true as the memories I have of Warsaw and covid lockdown.
It is therefore most appropriate to remember the words of Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk, “I would like to say a few words about the illusion that is time. As there is one sort of time we can call our own, and another - shall we call it official time? - that we share with all others”
What I experience here is my time. The other sort is ticking along.
Perhaps in those moments of despair and despondency when we feel time is running out, we are better off remembering the other form of time.
This other form of time is, funnily enough, timeless.
It is in that form of timelessness we ought to dwell in during those moments of despondency. Not as escape, but as a reminder that time is experienced.
When all is said and done, time is the enemy. But it was once said that we ought to keep our enemies closer than our friends.
Here's to the timelessness version of time.