THE SCENE UNSEEN BY JAMES STEFANUK: DECEMBER 5, 2016

The Scene Unseen | December 5, 2016 | Time

It just keeps on ticking away. You can’t grab it. You can’t stop it. But you can slow it down. You can speed it up. “Time flies when you’re having fun.” It’s no cliché; it’s the truth. The inverse is also true. One can only imagine the minutes going by like hours in a P.O.W. camp, or some other horrific and torturous situation. Three years would literally feel like a lifetime.

But like I said, you can’t grab it. You can’t stop it. Nobody really knows why… maybe we made a deal with the Devil. Seems likely. Time is measurable, not malleable (as is commonly stated). Its measurement does not change in a specific area of space; only our perception changes.

All that said, we can experience this altered perception together, simultaneously. Time is something a musician never stops thinking about. A song you’re really in to can go by in the blink of an eye, and seemingly unbeknownst to the collective radio ignoramus, it doesn’t matter how long it actually is. However, a three-minute pop ballad (for me anyway) can feel like a tour of duty.

We all blame time for running out, going by too fast or taking too bloody long. Time just shakes its head in a perfect rhythm. It is in fact the only stable natural force in the known universe. Music proves this; the timekeeper can use a machine to keep perfect time, while the audience perceives the experience in various ways depending on their interest level and how the musicians weave the sounds and melodies around that rhythm. But the rhythm remains unchanged.

Perhaps that’s why music continues to be such a compelling and engrossing form of entertainment, despite technological advancements and VR and endless streaming porn. Music connects us with the only stable thing in this chaotic reality we call life. I’m not saying there is no order to life, birth and death. But the small bit of order there is, is all thanks to time.

So the next time you want to say, “Time is short”, take it easy on poor old Time. The ultimate scapegoat, Time takes the blame, uncomplaining, for most of our shortcomings. We are a cruel ungrateful lot. Time is the only consistent and completely stable force, and also that which allows us to be in one place at one time, thus experiencing consciousness and moments. Go ahead and get lost in the music and the moments and don’t worry about Time. It just keeps on ticking away.

“You are not a victim, you just scream with boredom, you are not evicting time.” ~ David Bowie

– James Stefanuk