I am slow. I have been slow for as long as I can remember. By "slow", I mean that it takes me longer to do things than it takes most people to do them. In first grade, the teacher would regularly pass out sheets of paper with a grid of 100 empty boxes, and during the course of the school day we were supposed to write numbers from 1 to 100 in the boxes, and then turn in the paper. For most of the class, this was no problem. I used to have to stay after school to complete my numbers. I believe this was a bit of an embarrassment and puzzlement to my teacher, because in many ways she considered me to be one of the smartest children in the class, and she could not understand why I could rarely complete my number sheets during the course of a school day.
In ninth grade algebra class, this combination of slow speed and intelligence regularly led to a sort of "tortoise and hare" situation. The class would be divided into two competing groups, culminating in each group selecting a "champion" to go up to the front of the room and solve a problem on the blackboard while the other group's "champion" worked beside them to solve the same problem. I was usually chosen to represent my side. I would be working on the problem, and the student next to me would announce that they were finished. The teacher would pronounce their answer incorrect, and instruct both of us to keep working. The other student would again finish the problem, and again the teacher would announce that their answer was incorrect. After the other student had finished three or four times, I would finally finish, and the teacher would announce that my answer was correct, and our side would win the contest.
Since I have been slow my entire life, I have learned to compensate for it somewhat by usually working at my maximum speed, so I can appear to be working at a "normal, average" speed. This becomes apparent in situations where a "normal" person for some reason is called upon to work "faster". A "normal" person CAN, when necessary, work "faster". Since I am already working at or near my maximum possible speed, I am often incapable of doing anything "faster".
This is one of those areas in which it is hard for people not to view others in their own terms. On the one hand, this all may seem to make sense when clearly explained. On the other hand, it is difficult for anyone to understand why I can't just "be faster". Perhaps there are scientists who have studied this sort of thing, and can offer an explanation. I cannot explain it, but since I have lived with it my entire life, it is something that I am familiar with, and to a certain degree, comfortable with.
I should perhaps clarify that I am not necessarily slow on everything. I am less impaired when it comes to purely physical endeavors, such as walking, running, or riding a bicycle. I suspect that the slowness involves the way my brain works. I have long been aware that if I am trying to accomplish something in a hurry, any sort of conversation has the potential to bog me down -- including such innocuous events as someone saying "Hello" or "Good morning!" A "Hello" can make the difference between me being on time or late to an appointment, as everything I do immediately following the greeting slows to a snail's pace.
Reinhold Niebuhr's famous "Serenity Prayer" opens with, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference." For me, this statement represents one of the key problems each of us faces as we go through life: how to know what to accept and what to try to change. My slowness is one of those things that I have pretty much come to accept. Perhaps I should be struggling to change it. I do not know. Truth is complicated.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Year
Many of the units we use for measurement -- units like hours, miles, pounds, or gallons -- are somewhat or totally arbitrary. The "year", at least in principle, is instead based on scientific observation of a distinct unit of time -- the time it takes for our earth to complete one orbit around our sun. The length of a year, unlike many other units, is not based largely on tradition or mutual agreement -- it comes to us from our solar system.
The length of a "day" is also determined by scientific observation -- in this case, the length of time it takes for our earth to complete one rotation on its own axis. However, both of the units are based on what appear to be continuous rotations, without a distinct starting or ending point. The precise moment that one day ends and another begins, or the moment that one year ends and another begins, is one of those things that is determined somewhat or totally arbitrarily, and based largely on tradition and mutual agreement.
It's not that these continuing rotations are totally without landmarks. Our "day" has the moment when the sun appears to rise, the moment when the sun appears to set, and the moment when the sun appears to be at its highest point in the sky -- which we call "noon", though the term is complicated a bit by the issue of "time zones". Likewise, the fact the our earth is tilted relative to our sun gives us two distinct moments when each pole is closest to or furthest from the sun, and the two equinoxes half-way between those two moments. As such, it is possible to divide our "year" into four quarters.
Since both our "year" and "day" are based on observable phenomenon, most human cultures have basically agreed on what constitutes a "year" and what constitutes a "day". Since neither has a definite starting or ending point, different cultures have disagreed on when a year or day begins or ends. Historians believe that the first people to celebrate the start of a "new" year probably celebrated at the beginning of spring, a time that symbolized rebirth.
At the present time, most cultures have at least partially adopted the ideas that a new "day" begins at midnight -- the time when that spot on earth is furthest from the sun -- and a new "year" begins on January 1. January 1 has no particular astronomic significance, and in fact January 1 has migrated somewhat in terms of its relation to the orbit of earth around the sun, as our modern calendar evolved. It is important to note that these conventions have not been totally accepted by all cultures. Various cultures continue to observe completely different moments for the start of "their" year, such as "Chinese New Year" and the Hebrew "Rosh Hashanah", and for some occasions days are believed to start and end at other times, such as sundown.
The preceding is a very cursory discussion of a complicated topic -- I have not even mentioned the moon -- that I invite you to research more fully on your own. My point is that there is really nothing intrinsically "special" about January 1, other than the fact that we consider it to be special. Since we consider January 1 to be special, and the beginning of a New Year, it is an obvious moment for "New Years Resolutions" -- generally things we resolve to improve about our lives in the coming year. Typical resolutions include things like "lose weight" or "stop smoking" or "exercise". It is a time of new beginnings.
Though I cannot hope to change this, in many ways I consider our "New Year" observation to be unfortunate. First, there are the particular ways that modern Americans stereotypically celebrate the "New Year" -- with "New Year's Eve" parties focusing on the moment of midnight, followed by a day of recuperation from the midnight celebration, and possibly football-related parades and football games, mostly viewed on television. This is not to say that all or even most Americans observe these rituals, but no matter what it is a "holiday" period, with associated schedule changes in things like businesses and schools.
A contributing factor is that January 1 falls close to December 25 -- "Christmas" -- which is in many ways the most-observed holiday of the entire year. Due to this closeness, there is substantial overlap of the two holidays in our society. Some even go so far as to consider New Years Day to be the end of "the Christmas Season", the day when Christmas decorations are taken down, or at least no longer lit. The two holidays generally combine in terms of breaks from school -- students are dismissed from school prior to Christmas, and do not return until after the New Year begins.
Finally, there is the fact that in northern parts of the northern hemisphere, the "New Year" begins "in the deep midwinter" -- and actually closer to the beginning of cold weather than to the end of it. Depending on the particular location, and the particular weather that year, "the New Year" often begins at a time when many "normal" activities are made difficult by the weather, and life itself is a struggle.
I realize this is all highly variable, and depends on your location and local customs. In the Midwestern USA, where I live, we stumble into January 1, already physically, emotionally, and possibly financially exhausted, not only from the previous evening's revelry, but from the Christmas season, with its gift-giving and travel and family gatherings and associated expenditures of time and money, as well as other year-end expenses, and struggling against the winter. Even the people that manage to march into the New Year in good condition and with high spirits must deal with the fact that businesses and schools are closed, and those around them are frazzled by at least some of the afore-mentioned factors.
As I have already stated, I cannot hope to change any of this. Furthermore, if we wish to have a standardized "New Year", when the entire world agrees that one year has ended and another has begun, then the northern and southern hemispheres will be observing the change of the year in opposite seasons, whatever season we choose. Still, I believe we would all be better off if the New Year arrived during some more neutral season -- possibly March or September -- and was further from Christmas or other much-observed holidays. Finally, I suppose it would be productive if our celebration of the New Year focused on the morning, facing the New Year "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed".
There are obvious arguments against my proposals. Some would argue that we NEED another excuse to celebrate in the cold, dark days of winter. I am a firm believer both in the celebration of "midwinter", which "Christmas" has largely replaced in our culture, and also in celebrating the traditional "Twelve Days of Christmas" all the way to January 6 -- so, in my ideal world, there would still be plenty of midwinter celebration, perhaps even more than we currently observe. I also have no quarrel with late-night parties and kissing at midnight, but this could just as well be done at the "midwinter" celebration, or existing holidays like Saint Patrick's Day, or perhaps a brand-new "midnight kissing" holiday.
Not that any of this has any relevance, since the observance of the New Year is unlikely to change anytime soon. The fact is that I am struggling into this "New Year" myself, and hope to put things in perspective. Time marches on, and truth remains complicated. Happy New Year!
The length of a "day" is also determined by scientific observation -- in this case, the length of time it takes for our earth to complete one rotation on its own axis. However, both of the units are based on what appear to be continuous rotations, without a distinct starting or ending point. The precise moment that one day ends and another begins, or the moment that one year ends and another begins, is one of those things that is determined somewhat or totally arbitrarily, and based largely on tradition and mutual agreement.
It's not that these continuing rotations are totally without landmarks. Our "day" has the moment when the sun appears to rise, the moment when the sun appears to set, and the moment when the sun appears to be at its highest point in the sky -- which we call "noon", though the term is complicated a bit by the issue of "time zones". Likewise, the fact the our earth is tilted relative to our sun gives us two distinct moments when each pole is closest to or furthest from the sun, and the two equinoxes half-way between those two moments. As such, it is possible to divide our "year" into four quarters.
Since both our "year" and "day" are based on observable phenomenon, most human cultures have basically agreed on what constitutes a "year" and what constitutes a "day". Since neither has a definite starting or ending point, different cultures have disagreed on when a year or day begins or ends. Historians believe that the first people to celebrate the start of a "new" year probably celebrated at the beginning of spring, a time that symbolized rebirth.
At the present time, most cultures have at least partially adopted the ideas that a new "day" begins at midnight -- the time when that spot on earth is furthest from the sun -- and a new "year" begins on January 1. January 1 has no particular astronomic significance, and in fact January 1 has migrated somewhat in terms of its relation to the orbit of earth around the sun, as our modern calendar evolved. It is important to note that these conventions have not been totally accepted by all cultures. Various cultures continue to observe completely different moments for the start of "their" year, such as "Chinese New Year" and the Hebrew "Rosh Hashanah", and for some occasions days are believed to start and end at other times, such as sundown.
The preceding is a very cursory discussion of a complicated topic -- I have not even mentioned the moon -- that I invite you to research more fully on your own. My point is that there is really nothing intrinsically "special" about January 1, other than the fact that we consider it to be special. Since we consider January 1 to be special, and the beginning of a New Year, it is an obvious moment for "New Years Resolutions" -- generally things we resolve to improve about our lives in the coming year. Typical resolutions include things like "lose weight" or "stop smoking" or "exercise". It is a time of new beginnings.
Though I cannot hope to change this, in many ways I consider our "New Year" observation to be unfortunate. First, there are the particular ways that modern Americans stereotypically celebrate the "New Year" -- with "New Year's Eve" parties focusing on the moment of midnight, followed by a day of recuperation from the midnight celebration, and possibly football-related parades and football games, mostly viewed on television. This is not to say that all or even most Americans observe these rituals, but no matter what it is a "holiday" period, with associated schedule changes in things like businesses and schools.
A contributing factor is that January 1 falls close to December 25 -- "Christmas" -- which is in many ways the most-observed holiday of the entire year. Due to this closeness, there is substantial overlap of the two holidays in our society. Some even go so far as to consider New Years Day to be the end of "the Christmas Season", the day when Christmas decorations are taken down, or at least no longer lit. The two holidays generally combine in terms of breaks from school -- students are dismissed from school prior to Christmas, and do not return until after the New Year begins.
Finally, there is the fact that in northern parts of the northern hemisphere, the "New Year" begins "in the deep midwinter" -- and actually closer to the beginning of cold weather than to the end of it. Depending on the particular location, and the particular weather that year, "the New Year" often begins at a time when many "normal" activities are made difficult by the weather, and life itself is a struggle.
I realize this is all highly variable, and depends on your location and local customs. In the Midwestern USA, where I live, we stumble into January 1, already physically, emotionally, and possibly financially exhausted, not only from the previous evening's revelry, but from the Christmas season, with its gift-giving and travel and family gatherings and associated expenditures of time and money, as well as other year-end expenses, and struggling against the winter. Even the people that manage to march into the New Year in good condition and with high spirits must deal with the fact that businesses and schools are closed, and those around them are frazzled by at least some of the afore-mentioned factors.
As I have already stated, I cannot hope to change any of this. Furthermore, if we wish to have a standardized "New Year", when the entire world agrees that one year has ended and another has begun, then the northern and southern hemispheres will be observing the change of the year in opposite seasons, whatever season we choose. Still, I believe we would all be better off if the New Year arrived during some more neutral season -- possibly March or September -- and was further from Christmas or other much-observed holidays. Finally, I suppose it would be productive if our celebration of the New Year focused on the morning, facing the New Year "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed".
There are obvious arguments against my proposals. Some would argue that we NEED another excuse to celebrate in the cold, dark days of winter. I am a firm believer both in the celebration of "midwinter", which "Christmas" has largely replaced in our culture, and also in celebrating the traditional "Twelve Days of Christmas" all the way to January 6 -- so, in my ideal world, there would still be plenty of midwinter celebration, perhaps even more than we currently observe. I also have no quarrel with late-night parties and kissing at midnight, but this could just as well be done at the "midwinter" celebration, or existing holidays like Saint Patrick's Day, or perhaps a brand-new "midnight kissing" holiday.
Not that any of this has any relevance, since the observance of the New Year is unlikely to change anytime soon. The fact is that I am struggling into this "New Year" myself, and hope to put things in perspective. Time marches on, and truth remains complicated. Happy New Year!
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