Absolutely Zero Time

If there's one thing that I realize as I get older, it's that time is a finite resource. People always tell me that I could "make time" if I really wanted to, and I'm sure that's true if I simply didn't care about obligations and responsibilities. Tonight will be the third-straight night of me working all day at my normal full-time job before heading to the ballpark for some minor-pro baseball which will see me arrive at home some 14 hours after I left this morning. This schedule will continue right through until Sunday.

This scheduling has, of course, put a damper on my hockey-watching schedule as I was gearing up for the ECHL's Kelly Cup Final while trying in vain to pretend like I care about the Stanley Cup Final. The AHL's Calder Cup Final is yet to be determined with four teams still in the semifinal series, and there's AIHL hockey to be watched later at night when possible. Clearly, baseball is cramping my hockey viewing.

It's funny how quickly two weeks go by when you're constantly working, and it made me realize that the speed of time likely moves differently for everyone. For anyone playing in a championship hockey series right now, it will feel like time passed in the blink of an eye. For those souls who are locked in a prison cell, time may crawl slower than I ever know. It's all relative based on what one is doing, yet time is a constant. It neither speeds up or slows down for anyone.

The philosphical side of me thinks about how time was figured by the Egyptians, Romans, Sumerians, and Babylonians in terms of time over days, seasons, months, and years, and part of me wonders if this time convention we've adopted would make sense to other beings.

Meg, HBIC's Cat Executive Officer, likely understands day from night, but time has minimal value to her outside of "hey, I'm hungry and you usually feed me now". I wonder what time systems aliens species may use and whether creatures living miles down in the ocean where sun never reaches understand or even need the concepts of time.

In thinking about all this, it occurs to me that me complaining about my two weeks of having no time that I chose where I can't watch hockey isn't even close to being important in the grand scheme of the world and planet. Do I want to watch hockey? Sure. Will I be able to? Yes, at some point. I can still catch the highlights and the social media posts, so it's not like I won't see the most important parts. I just likely won't see them happen as they occur in real time.

Maybe I should rely on Terrance Mann's speech about baseball and time as delivered by James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams. He said, "The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time," and it's how I'm marking my days as I'll be at the ballpark tonight, Friday, and Sunday while umpiring a tournament on Satuday.

Alice Walker wrote in The Color Purple, "Time moves slowly but passes quickly." As I've gotten older, she's entirely right.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!