Time.  

Time is a function of the universe we live in.  Scientists can so easily explain it. Days and nights occur because the earth is spinning on its axis.  We can study Einstein's theories, we can boggle our minds with the concepts of time, space, motion and matter.  None of this explains what time is in the human experience.

I wonder how it is that I get up so early and still there is no time and I am late for work.  Then I get to work and time goes so slowly, there is twice as much of it as there ought to be.

This past weekend we reverted to standard time from our cherished Daylight Savings Time.  Twice a year we change our clocks, hoping to remember the correct direction by reciting  mnemonic devices such as "spring forward, fall back".  I say, either way, someone could get hurt.

The clocks went back an hour.  Sunset crept up on us earlier.  It was only by an hour but due to the strange way humans divide their days, it arrived at a very important time marker: the end of the work day.  The time when we finally are freed from our partitioned cells and jangling phones.  Time to get into our cars and fight all the other humans who are also desperate to reach home.  

I noticed it the first day at work after the clocks went back. I stood at the window, looking out over the parking lot, noticing the absence of those gorgeous pink and purple streaks of sunset.  Dusk had already arrived with yet fifteen minutes to go until the 5:00 parole from our daily sentence. I couldn't help it, the realization that the months of darkness had arrived overcame me and I exclaimed "oh, it is pitch black already!  The night begins now before our day is even through".  The coworker behind me groaned and sarcastically thanked me for that uplifting observation.  I have that effect on people.

But we all know time moves when we want to hold it, stands still when we would hurry it and push it out of our way.  I turned to her and in a moment of remorse and manufactured optimism, I told her what is essentially true.

"Listen", I said.  "It is already November.  That means that in only three weeks it will be Thanksgiving.  You know what Thanksgiving means?  It means that after Thanksgiving, time will fly by in a flurry of too few shopping days left till Christmas.  Time rushes past us while we flounder, unprepared and suddenly Christmas is upon us."

"Now Christmas is four days after the winter solstice so that means we have already passed the shortest day of the year and are already gaining minute bits of daylight.  Sure these go unnoticed at first, but steadily they accumulate all through January until one day in the middle of February you will realize it is not quite pitch black when you walk to your car.  And as everyone knows, February is a tiny little month that barely gets noticed before it is gone. And after February, spring comes March-ing in."

I turned to her for the full dramatic effect.

"Clearly, the signs are all there.  Spring is just around the corner."

Einstein was right, you know.  Time is relative.