Beginning of a new year

The Roman poet, Virgil, once wrote

fugit irreparabile tempus

which when translated from the ancient Latin vernacular means, "time flees irretrievably”. More commonly, we tend to say “time flies”. I guess its a shared experience between those of us who are older than 35 to be alarmed at the speed with which each new year comes by. In my experience, the extent of that alarm is directly proportional to one’s age. By the time I’m 60, I’m going to have take Valium with my breakfast come January 1. Now don’t get me wrong! I’m not old, nor do I feel old, but time does seem to be speeding up the older I get.

There are a few interesting theories that try to explain that effect. One is telescopy - this is simply the underestimation of time. Just as things look close when viewed through a telescope, so past events are seen as having occurred more recently than they actually did. Then there is the reminiscence effect - when we’re young, we’re doing new things for the first time, but as we age, we fall into routines (ruts sometimes) and what used to be new and exciting becomes mundane. I would have thought that would make time drag, but according to scientists, regular events tend to pass by in a blur because they are not emotionally charged. The third theory has to do with the ageing of the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or the brain’s biological clock - this has something to do with circadian rhythms and the ends of one’s DNA strands fraying like shoelaces...?

Anyway, it would appear that the perceived speeding up of time as we age is a scientific fact, not merely a sneaky feeling. And here we are, having sped, at a dizzy speed, through the first month of yet another year. I have a feeling though, that this year is going to be a significant one (not that previous ones were insignificant). Its just that this year will see me turning 47. It will see the wife of my youth turning 46, 44, er...45ish. It will see our 12th year in Asia (our 3rd in Singapore). Most significantly, it will see our return to South Africa in December.

This is significant because when we left SA 12 years ago, I thought that I would go back in order to retire. Happily, or maybe unhappily, I will not be going back to retire. Instead, I will be going back to start a new chapter in my life. A new work with OMF, done in a new way, in a new era. I am very excited about going back although I do expect things have changed a lot in the past 12 years. I know I have changed in terms of my thinking and expectations. My personal circumstances have also changed in that I will be going back with 3 children, having left 12 years ago with none. When we left for Thailand in 2003, we had to learn a new culture and a new language. We had to learn to live in a different country. The same when we moved to Singapore. I suspect, apart from having to learn the language, our move back to SA is going to require a similar learning curve to the one we went through when we moved to Asia.

comments powered by Disqus