Time is Coming to Town

Proxeiro (Facebook Post)

Time, this invisible unit of measurement of our lives, is our most trusted companion but also our most relentless judge. We divide it into moments, celebrate it on anniversaries, and imprison it in calendars. Yet, if we look deep within ourselves, where all the answers reside, we discover that time is an illusion—a human construct designed to impose order on the chaos of existence.

Cyclical eternity and linear hope

What is time? Is it a flow or a series of moments? Is it an unbroken line or a repeating cycle? Or could it be a spiral that takes us further and further?
The answer seems to depend on the observer’s perspective. For physicists, time is a dimension inseparable from space, which expands, curves, and adheres to the laws of gravity. For philosophers, it is the invisible stage where life unfolds, forming the foundation of our experiences. And for us, everyday people, time is a cycle of clocks, calendars and recurring holidays. Seasons succeed one another, days and nights alternate, and planets follow eternal orbits around the stars.
In this apparent cyclicality, we seek the linear course. We want to believe in progress, in evolution. That every new year, every month, and every moment brings us closer to something greater. As if we are moving in a spiral – not just in circles that are close and open, but in circles joined together, like springs – like the thread of a screw opening a way forward.

Between memory and imagination

And yet, beyond theories, time is for each of us something deeply personal, full of contradictions. For the illusion of time is not only about measuring it but also about our experience of it. We measure it precisely, second by second, and simultaneously experience it in a completely subjective way. A minute of waiting can seem like an eternity, while an hour of joy passes like a flash of lightning.
In reality, the past and the future exist only in our memory and imagination. The past is a series of images we have stored in our minds, therefore subject to the observer’s subjectivity. At the same time, the future is a projection of desires, fears and assumptions. The only true “now” lasts for a moment, a subtle pause before it too passes into the past.

The Ritual of Change

New Year’s Eve is perhaps the most vivid evidence of the virtuality of time. The planet continues its ceaseless rotation on its axis, and we, in the stillness of the cosmic rhythm, choose a particular moment to give it special significance. We decorate our homes, wear our best, cook festive dishes, and share the table with our loved ones.
Ten seconds before midnight, all the people on the planet, from East to West and with an hour difference, are synchronized in a global countdown. And so, with one wish, “Happy New Year”, the intangible takes shape. Time, this invisible flow of moments, becomes a symbol of hope, change, and a new beginning.
The change of time is a human agreement, a construct that does not change reality. But it does give us the sense of a new beginning. Although the world remains the same, this illusion of change gives us the power to dream again, to hope, to try. For, in the end, it is the very belief in change that can bring it.

The gift of the moment

Time is a convention, a human invention. But it is also something more. It is the framework that allows us to understand our existence. And if it is virtual and subjective, that does not diminish its value – on the contrary, it demonstrates our ability to find meaning in chaos, to detect light even in darkness.
So let us celebrate the time. Let us raise our voices and shout “Happy New Year”. Let us laugh, let us love, let us hope, fully aware of the iconic nature of wishing.
This is because what truly matters is not the time that passes, but how we live each moment.
Every single moment, every “now,” is a priceless opportunity for life.

Picture of Sofia Motsia

Sofia Motsia

MA Creative Writing, BA Theatre studies

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