David Murdock Column: On time, when it flies and when it creeps

Of course, y’all have heard the old saying, “Time flies.”  Neither does it seem to wait for anyone.  And a wise man once said that tomorrow “Creeps in this petty pace from day to day” ― I’m paraphrasing just a little there and taking it out of context.  However, time flies and creeps along, and it waits for no one.  That’s the point.

Thinking back, I’m not sure when was the last occasion when I felt that “the time was right.”  By that, I mean that everything just seemed like it was in equilibrium.  That time was neither flying nor creeping.  That time was, in fact, waiting for me.

I’m not saying that there haven’t been times like that for me ― lots of ‘em, in fact ― but it’s been a while.  Everything has been so … busy … lately.  The strange thing about it is that it’s not “personal busy.”  I’m neither more nor less busy right now than I usually am.  It’s a “cultural busy.”

Everything around me seems to have sped up.

The entertainment cycle, for one.  There was a time when I liked to stay informed on what was going on; these days, I don’t worry so much about it.

An example is Taylor Swift.  I have no opinion whatsoever on Taylor Swift, except that I have no opinion on Taylor Swift. I know most people have rather strong opinions on her, one way or the other. I wish her well.  She certainly seems to have worked hard for her success.  (Come to think of it, that’s sorta an opinion on Taylor Swift, isn’t it?)

And I’ve fussed here before about all the young movie stars that I don’t know. That’s why I gave up reading entertainment websites ― they talk about people I don’t know. It’s a chore to Google people to find out who they are so I can read the article to find out what they’re doing.

It’s just getting to be a bit fatiguing to keep up with popular culture. Even if I were to confine myself solely to one aspect of pop culture — say, I don’t know, books ― I can’t even keep up with all the new books coming out these days.

If even our pop culture conspires to make me feel like a slacker, we’re too “busy.”

I mentioned times when everything was in equilibrium and time was waiting for me — there have been so many over the years.

One of my favorite memories was when I was with a group of friends in Panama City, Florida, when I was about 19 or 20. The guys all brought snorkeling gear on the off chance that we might be able to snorkel off the beach. Miracle of miracles! Conditions were perfect for it.

We were in about 15 feet of absolutely clear water ― so clear I could see the bottom easily. There was a school of small fish between us and the bottom; every once in a while, some larger predatory fish zipped through the smaller ones. Lazily floating along and watching it was a powerful moment that seemed to last forever.

In a way, it has ― I recall it all these decades later.

Most of my moments of equilibrium like that occurred in nature, and most involved being in company with friends. A few of them, however, happened when I was completely alone.

A recent moment like that was when I drove the Natchez Trace Parkway alone back in 2015. “Moment” implies that it was a short amount of time, but that “moment” lasted about two days ― from the visitor’s center in Natchez, Mississippi to the Loveless Café in Nashville, Tennessee.

I was driving the Trace specifically to see the Native American mound sites along it, but I found myself melting into the experience and stopping to see more than I’d planned.

For those of y’all who have never been, driving the Natchez Trace is like being in another world.  I recommend it highly, but don’t rush. There is a strictly enforced speed limit, and there are no commercial establishments on the Parkway at all, so you have to drive off of it to find food, gas, or accommodations.

That 2015 trip wasn’t planned out completely, so I was just driving along and taking those two days as they came to me — never planning anything more than a stop ahead. I have a beautiful U.S. National Park Service map of the Trace … and a duplicate of it that I marked up and wrote all over as I traveled. That was a great trip.

During both of those occasions, time neither flew nor crept ― it was simply “right.”

When I said earlier that I can’t recall the last time I had one of those moments, it’s that those moments — at least for me ― have become shorter in duration.  It’s been at least a couple of years since I’ve have an extended period of personal equilibrium like that ― that one in 2022 was a personal writing project that lasted 40 days.

These days, my moments of equilibrium are indeed moments — fleeting times when the universe simply seems to stop for a little while.

And that’s the thing:  the “right time” cannot be planned.  It happens.

David Murdock is an English instructor at Gadsden State Community College. He can be contacted at murdockcolumn@yahoo.com. The opinions expressed are his own.   

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: David Murdock On time, when it flies and when it creeps