Can you believe it’s almost September, already?

We’ve all had the experience of feeling time is passing too quickly. The weird part is, it’s not. Time is what it has always been. Minutes are still made up of sixty seconds and nothing has changed in that continuum for eternity. So when it seems time is racing it’s not time that’s changing, it’s our perception of time.

I’ve read endless explanations of this from a variety of sources and one that seems to have stuck for me is related to percentages of time. For a five-year-old it takes ‘forever’ for the next Christmas to roll around because the annual event is 20 percent of their entire lifetime while for a 70-year-old that same year is only 1.4 percent of their entire lifetime. This fuels the perception that time speeds up the older we get and believe me, that’s exactly how it feels.

But in a recent post, Herman has a different take on the matter and I think I like his better because it implies something can be done about the time compression we all experience:

“Years that are filled with novelty tend to feel longer and are more memorable than years of consistently similar days. It’s partly why time feels so much longer as a child, since all experiences are fairly novel and there’s explicit progression though the different phases of school, which stands in stark contrast to, say, a few years of working the same job and rarely taking vacation or trying anything new. Those few years can easily condense into a handful of memories, and so the perception of those years is fairly short.”

A hundred and fifty years ago a person had to work, probably on a farm, from sun up to sun down just to carve out enough food to live. Before that, it was hunting and foraging for food. Imagine spending all day every day in constant pursuit of the next meal. Then along comes early automation and humans suddenly had something they never had before, a little spare time. Add to that advances that lengthen life, and now it’s not uncommon to have too much spare time, for too long, and still it can feel like time is moving too quickly.

Lucky for us we have a hobby. Perhaps several hobbies. Necessary respites in the course of a typical week or month where we can do something other than work. For me, that hobby has always been radio.

Almost 90 years ago, Clinton B. DeSoto wrote:

This is one facet of amateur radio: it is a hobby. “The ordinary life of the ordinary man from whence spring the great majority of hams is a dull, drab and somewhat dreary struggle,” according to one amateur. “Psychologists tell us that periodically one should drop his work for awhile and try something else, that if it be interesting enough one will usually return with renewed interest and zest.” Then this amateur, a successful professional man, continues:

“Amateur radio is my hobby. In its pursuit I find the balm of Gilead.”

If memorable experiences really are the secret to slowing time, then those with an interest in radio, communications, electronics, and the camaraderie of others of a like mind can dig deeper into the art and skill of amateur radio and at least tap the brakes on runaway time.

What are you doing to make more memorable experiences?