Gaining insight from a global crisis
The pandemic has given us first-hand experience of the fundamental nature of time.
Looking into the past, we cannot remember exactly how many months ago the Australian bushfires were raging. Looking into the future, we wonder when we will be able to go on holiday? If we knew the world would be back to normal in three months, time would feel as if it is passing more quickly. Since we don't know, life drags on.
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2020 made us aware that we experience the passage of time different from reality. The days felt stretched out, and some months seemed to go on forever.
Time has two faces: One is the "objective time" of watches and calendars. The second is "lived time", the time of your subjective experience. This time is felt, lived, and acted.
We mostly don't pay attention to lived time since we find objective time more useful. But we can get an understanding of the difference between them when they come apart.
An hour spent at the dentist's office feels long and drawn out while an hour at a party feels like it is passing by very quickly.
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