Putting time into perspective - my afternoon musings

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Grandad
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Putting time into perspective - my afternoon musings

Post by Grandad »

At mid day I watched the ceremony at the War Cemetery at Tyne Cot, Belgium, commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the start of the battle for Passchendaele in WWI. Around half a million Allied and German soldiers lost their lives, were injured, or missing presumed dead; in an action that lasted 100 days in deplorable weather.
Photo images from the action brought home to me what a perilous event that was. Even the munitions were so unreliable that, to this day, around 200 tons of unexploded shells and bombs are being found each year.

So this is a hundred year anniversary, but is 100 years SO long? In a little over a year I will have lived in my house for 50 years, half the anniversary period. I was born just 17 years after that event which seems so long ago. (the event not my birth) My Grandfather had died in action 20 years before my birth. Our children are all well into their fifties and hopefully at least one grandchild will make us Great Grandparents.

I remember waiting up until about 2am on 21 July 1969 to see Neil Armstrong become the first man to set foot on the moon. And that was just 52 years after Passchendaele. Quite amazing what happened in the world during those 52 years.

I sometimes think that a good measure of time is generations. If, as a crude measure, we take a generation to be 20 years, then Passchendaele was just 5 generations ago and until quite recently, some people had aged relatives who were veterans of that action still alive. I think that makes it sound much more recent.

The Romans came to Britain in 43AD. Using my rule of thumb that is about 98 generations ago, or 20 Passchendaele anniversaries.

As I said in my title, these are just musings but when we think of time past in these terms, our life on earth is so very short.....

The ceremony at Tyne Cot was both moving and appropriate to remember those who fell.


:gg:
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Re: Putting time into perspective - my afternoon musings

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

@Grandad - very interesting calculations and "yup" how time flies. Depending on how you look at it and calculate the time it can see a long time ago or hardly any time ago comparatively.

To me time was much slower when I was a kid. I can remember specific days and events that I waited for, knew would come and pass. Now days seem to fly by and everything mushes into one as events are just coming coming coming coming non-stop with the latest catastrophe out topping the last crisis.
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Re: Putting time into perspective - my afternoon musings

Post by Kiya »

Like you Grandad I've often put time in perspective ,

I was just saying to my brother the other day " just imagine a 100 years from now everybody living on this earth will be dead " :o but then I had a second thought & raised the age to 120 years as the people living much longer.

Can you imagine that :!:
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Re: Putting time into perspective - my afternoon musings

Post by Horus »

I always think that your perception of time is relevant to your age. Take for example when you were a young child of about 5 years old, Christmas and Birthdays were a major event to look forwards to and of course they took forever to come around again. This I believe is because your life’s span at that point was only 5 years, so from your perspective 1 year was a 5th of your life, one 5th of everything you had experienced. Whereas as you get older that time perspective shrinks proportionately and at say 80 years of age it only represents one 80th of your life and of everything that you have experienced. I am convinced that your brain puts this time into perspective depending upon your age and that is why we seem to think that time is flying by as we get older.
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Re: Putting time into perspective - my afternoon musings

Post by Grandad »

Kiya I would guess that most of us know or know of someone who reached 100 years and above.

I have always liked playing with numbers. The present UK life expectancy is 83 for women and 79 for men. That could sound low, indeed even with all my problems I am now 4 years past expectation. But of course those numbers are averages and for everyone who achieves 100 years there has to be, on average, somebody who only got to about 60 or less.

I won't bore you with all the details but there is something called the normal (or Gaussian) distribution and this clearly helps us to understand where those life expectancies fit in the overall picture.

But enough of that. If I get to 90 I shall feel sorry for the fellow who passed at about 70 to keep the average going. ;) :lol:

Edit!
I think we posted at about the same time H so I hadn't seen yours.
I do agree with what you say and maybe that is why young people can react to situations for which they have only limited knowledge when older people take a more rational and considered view. I am thinking just now of the young people who demonstrated to 'Save Charlie Gard' when with more mature thoughts they would understand the futility of keeping that little boy alive.
:gg:
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Re: Putting time into perspective - my afternoon musings

Post by Kiya »

Agree with you both..............................Time now is passing to quick :a66:
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Re: Putting time into perspective - my afternoon musings

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Time is zipping by faster and faster every day. I wanted to retire so I'd have "TIME" but seems since I quit working "TIME" is evaporating on me faster every day.
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