Another birthday.
It is certainly funny how time passes, and of how our perception of time passing changes through various stages of life. Some birthdays are highly anticipated with excitement (turning 18 or 21 for example), and others can be a blow to morale (40, 70, etc).
In the end, it seems as though celebrating a birthday is in many ways simply highlights that more time that has passed – the trick is whether you are counting time on the up slope, or on the down slope.
A birthday is a mark of time in a world that is gauged on scales of time – and finite ones at that. I’ve lived in areas where the cultural norm is a slower passage of time, and amongst those living the rat race with a fast passage of time. Experiencing both extremes verifies for me that time is a manufactured element of our existence. We build and evolve across this linear state, and then it all ends, or does it?
With my recent work in theorizing a renewed human presence living and working in the ocean, removing time from the equation has proven to be the foremost challenge – though it is possible if we consider our actions in the context of operating within space, rather than across time. Makes sense?
Perhaps not, though it will.
Interestingly, this is the my first birthday in probably a decade that I have not been underwater for at least a part of the day…even I need a break every now and again. Though, I’ve certainly spent the better part of the day continuing to work on my theory…back to blowing bubbles tomorrow.
My struggle with acknowledging the passage of time is the pressure I impose on myself to see through the wealth of projects on my plate – the culmination of which I am confident will one day remove time from the equation of a new life in the sea.
