In alchemy, there is a famous symbol—the ouroboros—that signifies the eternal return. The cyclical nature of time. The oldest-known ouroboros comes from a 13th-century BC shrine in the tomb of Tutankhamen. It’s a symbol for the mystery of cyclical time—Egyptians understood time as that which flows back into itself, a series of repeating cycles, rather than something linear and evolving—it was the flooding of the Nile each year, the journey of the sun. It’s a symbol that occurs in different iterations throughout many religions as well—in Norse myth, the
I had to read your article several times, I found it so utterly absorbing. I have to admit to being fascinated by this subject. I recently wrote a piece on the subject of plants and their daily rhythms - exploring the question "Do plants go to sleep?" Have you read about Linnaeus' "Dial of Herbs"? It's a fascinating account of the timing of leaf-bud burst in different trees and bushes. The idea was further explored by John Henry Ingram in his 1869 Flora Symbolica, who went as far as to detail a precise method for creating such a dial. His list begins with Goat’s Beard (opening time 3 am,) and ends with chickweed, which is a relatively late riser in the plant world, waking up at about 9.15 am. I digress...thank you for this extra-ordinary thought provoking piece. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I love the subject too--I saw that Jenny Odell, who wrote the great How To Do Nothing, has a new book coming out in the spring titled Saving Time and cannot wait to read her take on it. And I love that Linnaeus constructed a flower clock! I almost thought about including it--what a different and fascinating way to respond to the measurement of time. I'm going to look up the Flora Symbolica--I'm not familiar with that and can't wait to read more about the details, so feel free to digress anytime, I love rabbit holes and diving deep, thank you for sharing! I'm so glad you found my post a good read, that's the best response a writer can have, so thank you again for reading.
I'm having something of an existential crisis lately as it relates to time. This post of yours, and AHP's recent one called "The Diminishing Returns of Calendar Culture" is making me just rethink everything. I quit my last job largely as an effort to simplify my life (as well as not invest so much of my life into something so soul sucking) and yet that simplicity is pulling away from me down the stretch, I think. I'm juggling multiple calendars, multiple to do lists, and feeling myself over-scheduled and just not getting ANYthing done. My best moments lately are those stretches where time just doesn't seem to matter much, and they almost always correspond with being off grid too where not even a cell signal can find me. Time ultimately finds me though, no matter how deeply into the woods I try and retreat. The sad reality is that to live any of THAT deep woods life at all requires scheduling shit that keeps my life afloat. It's a tyranny! I've spent my entire morning wrestling with it, and now I have one eye on the clock against where I need to be headed next and at what time. It is endless and relentless and I often just want it to stop altogether.
I was fascinated that AHP posted about calendars too--it's so hard to make sense of how to best use time as we know it. I'm so with you--it's all a tyranny, time, labor, money. I hate how it all combines into becoming commodities rather than something done to simply be. I want to find a way to make it all work but this world conspires against us at every turn, it seems...
It's all so circular and difficult and frustrating. When we pull away from those stretches where imposed time loses its grip, we inevitably return to increased demands on both time and attention. How much of it would be necessary without the commodification of life? It really is a tyranny.
"such a blur between parenting, adapting, living, working, parenting, so many years not sleeping" -- I feel you on this. Those early years when we're sleep-deprived and our brains can't lay down memory tracks and it all becomes endless yet sped-up when we look back. I remember the days as interminable, and it took effort to tell myself to remember certain moments.
I was wondering about mirrors and self-perception over the last year. Realizing that it wasn't that long ago that most people might not have known what they themselves looked like because mirrors would have only been for the well-off. How would that change our perception of ourselves, not to know our own appearance except in the reactions or judgments of others?
I kind of miss the blursday too in a way--I think it's the notion that I was struggling with in my post, about how to allow it to all be enough at some point. To let go of that anxiety of remembering wrongly, or of not doing enough to make certain memories stronger. I also think about the lack of mirrors in history all the time--how different it would be to not ever know you're real reflection, would it be freeing or more distancing in somehow knowing/seeing ourselves?
I had to read your article several times, I found it so utterly absorbing. I have to admit to being fascinated by this subject. I recently wrote a piece on the subject of plants and their daily rhythms - exploring the question "Do plants go to sleep?" Have you read about Linnaeus' "Dial of Herbs"? It's a fascinating account of the timing of leaf-bud burst in different trees and bushes. The idea was further explored by John Henry Ingram in his 1869 Flora Symbolica, who went as far as to detail a precise method for creating such a dial. His list begins with Goat’s Beard (opening time 3 am,) and ends with chickweed, which is a relatively late riser in the plant world, waking up at about 9.15 am. I digress...thank you for this extra-ordinary thought provoking piece. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I love the subject too--I saw that Jenny Odell, who wrote the great How To Do Nothing, has a new book coming out in the spring titled Saving Time and cannot wait to read her take on it. And I love that Linnaeus constructed a flower clock! I almost thought about including it--what a different and fascinating way to respond to the measurement of time. I'm going to look up the Flora Symbolica--I'm not familiar with that and can't wait to read more about the details, so feel free to digress anytime, I love rabbit holes and diving deep, thank you for sharing! I'm so glad you found my post a good read, that's the best response a writer can have, so thank you again for reading.
Woman as a measure of time... love it.
I loved that too. The moon and women, governing bodies...
I'm having something of an existential crisis lately as it relates to time. This post of yours, and AHP's recent one called "The Diminishing Returns of Calendar Culture" is making me just rethink everything. I quit my last job largely as an effort to simplify my life (as well as not invest so much of my life into something so soul sucking) and yet that simplicity is pulling away from me down the stretch, I think. I'm juggling multiple calendars, multiple to do lists, and feeling myself over-scheduled and just not getting ANYthing done. My best moments lately are those stretches where time just doesn't seem to matter much, and they almost always correspond with being off grid too where not even a cell signal can find me. Time ultimately finds me though, no matter how deeply into the woods I try and retreat. The sad reality is that to live any of THAT deep woods life at all requires scheduling shit that keeps my life afloat. It's a tyranny! I've spent my entire morning wrestling with it, and now I have one eye on the clock against where I need to be headed next and at what time. It is endless and relentless and I often just want it to stop altogether.
I was fascinated that AHP posted about calendars too--it's so hard to make sense of how to best use time as we know it. I'm so with you--it's all a tyranny, time, labor, money. I hate how it all combines into becoming commodities rather than something done to simply be. I want to find a way to make it all work but this world conspires against us at every turn, it seems...
It's all so circular and difficult and frustrating. When we pull away from those stretches where imposed time loses its grip, we inevitably return to increased demands on both time and attention. How much of it would be necessary without the commodification of life? It really is a tyranny.
Part of me misses the Blursdays.
"such a blur between parenting, adapting, living, working, parenting, so many years not sleeping" -- I feel you on this. Those early years when we're sleep-deprived and our brains can't lay down memory tracks and it all becomes endless yet sped-up when we look back. I remember the days as interminable, and it took effort to tell myself to remember certain moments.
I was wondering about mirrors and self-perception over the last year. Realizing that it wasn't that long ago that most people might not have known what they themselves looked like because mirrors would have only been for the well-off. How would that change our perception of ourselves, not to know our own appearance except in the reactions or judgments of others?
I kind of miss the blursday too in a way--I think it's the notion that I was struggling with in my post, about how to allow it to all be enough at some point. To let go of that anxiety of remembering wrongly, or of not doing enough to make certain memories stronger. I also think about the lack of mirrors in history all the time--how different it would be to not ever know you're real reflection, would it be freeing or more distancing in somehow knowing/seeing ourselves?