"What exactly is time?" asked King Solomon. "The antechamber of eternity," replied Melchizedek.
An answer that makes you think, or at least, it made me think. According to Melchizedek, King of the kingdom of Salem, time is precisely the gateway to eternity. An answer as interesting as it is vague. Time has been the subject of study for centuries, but so far, no one has been able to scientifically explain what it is.
An inquiry that perhaps is as eternal as time itself.
Time and eternity: two purely abstract concepts. Apparently, the former the cause and the latter the effect. But what would happen if we inserted something more concrete? Let's insert the human being, let's insert ourselves.
With us "in the game" something changes: time acquires a meaning less abstract but more conventional.
By convention, the time on our clocks is the same throughout the entire area of a time zone. Also, always by convention, all days have the same average duration of 24 hours. In reality, every location has its specific time, every day of the year has its own specific duration; as well as every hour, every minute, and so on.
Time and eternity may have congruences, but we humans have nothing in common with eternity, as we are not immortal. Hence, we can begin to speak of "our time," no longer absolute but relative to us and our existence. Not only relative to us as a species, but relative to each of us individually. In fact, we all sometimes feel that moments pass more quickly or more slowly depending on what we do. There are boring moments when we watch the clock, cursing the time that never seems to pass, and there are moments when we feel so good that we hope they never end.
In these moments, we do not think about the passing time: we never look at the clock except to hope that the hands stop for a few seconds, a minute, or an extra hour. Time can be mysterious and cruel.
Nowadays, the society we live in gives us no respite, the perfect example is an anecdote that happened in Ecuador about 5 years ago:
A sloth, an animal famous for its slowness, tries to cross the road and then gives up, frightened by the traffic, remaining "embraced" by a guardrail in the middle of the road. Ultimately, the sloth was rescued. A simple metaphor for the slow approach to reality, opposite to the frenzy of today's society.
Today, we live in a sort of interim, as Gramsci wrote, where the rules of the past no longer apply and those of the future have not yet been written; uncertainty urges us to live faster, in an attempt to reach something that appears elusive.
A reality dominated by frenzy that confuses us, irremediably blocking us if we do not keep up. We must focus on the finish line, and it is not simple; often, we do not even know where it is. Our actions shape us, much like a sculptor working on marble. Mistakes can be made: a small error may go unnoticed, but if we do not remain focused, we risk persevering, and poorly sculpted marble cannot be corrected.
The sloth made a mistake in trying to cross the road, but when it realized the error, it stopped and waited for someone to save it. The concentration and lucidity of the sloth overcame its "slow foot" and led to a happy ending.
The metaphor of this fortunate animal can be applied to numerous situations in our existence in the society we live in, particularly interesting to transpose into the engine of society itself: work.
Concentration, efficiency, and determination are fundamental bases for growing in any profession. Bases that can be severely tested by many obstacles, especially distraction and lack of inspiration.