By Dr. Aien Changkiri
26 May 2022
“ Time is one of the greatest archetypal experiences of man...” Marie-Louise von Franz
Among the many glorious gifts that David Bowie has flooded the world of man with is a song that holds very dear to me. It is a 1973 song titled “Time”. In the ultimate personification, he expresses his trepidation and being overwhelmed by the pre-eminence of Time as we unfold our lives and lay waste to its glory. He reflects upon the fact that we are living merely as characters and playing out a game or a script that is dictated by Time and is beyond us:
“Time, he's waiting in the wings
He speaks of senseless things
His script is you and me, boys
Time, he flexes like a whore
Falls wanking to the floor
His trick is you and me, boy
Time, in quaaludes and red wine
Demanding Billy Dolls
And other friends of mine
Take your time
The sniper in the brain, regurgitating drain
Incestuous and vain
And many other last names
Oh, well, I look at my watch, it say nine twenty-five
And I think "oh God, I'm still alive"”
Bowie really is a gift that keeps on giving. His presence is dearly felt in this, might I say, cacophonous nightmare of modern pop music and culture, but that’s not the ‘rant’ we are here for today. Today we talk about the greatest abstraction we know as Time. Allow me to add my not-so-original musings to the mix.
Ever since creation or some might say the inception of the universe, time has dictated the development and the evolution of our civilization. Early man used to map their days through the rising and the setting of the sun. Time is the great enabler, it enables us and disables us, it breaks us and heals us. It creates and it destroys. Time has always acted as an entity that existed beyond the Alpha and Omega that marks the beginning and the end. We experience our aliveness through time; our forefathers experienced their aliveness through time; and it is through time that we have memories of the past, the present and musings for the future. Time lives inside of us, and it is safe to assume that it lives beyond the axis of our existence; it is the ubiquitous untouchable. The spaces we exist and experience is relative to time. The cyclical nature of Time measures the entirety of the space we inhabit and the indefinite expanse of our universe.
Time provides and inspires, and it bears the fruits of our existence; much like when we say “the spirit of the times”. Time can be the greatest giver as well as the merciless extractor. Time has tirelessly managed to uphold its power over us, and time and again we fall prey to its wrath. We are reminded of the status of our mere mortality and inconsequence in its grasp. The Bowie song insightfully crafts this relationship. Here’s a good reminder that humanity in all our glory has figured out how to bend light but still haven’t and at this rate is eons away from bending time if the possibility even exists.
It is gratifying to believe in the numinous, divine nature of our existence. We live through a proper existential commentary of our lives no matter our beliefs and ideology. And a believer is most considerably a wiser man. It is wise to concede to the greatness of Time and reap the blessings. The numinous experience of Time comes to one who is aware and believes. Time gives and creates as it moves forward. It is upon man to honour this proclivity it possesses.
In light of the existential pandemonium of recent times, we often find ourselves pondering on the prospective return to normalcy. But what really is normalcy? There has been a massive paradigm shift affecting every facet of society and culture. This time in our lives, these changes, do we embrace them and move forward, or do we bend the flow and regress? There is clearly comfort in the known but we have also been witness to how collectively adaptable we are as a civilization. The question now lies in if we allow ourselves to look back and witness the ravages of Time; the great civilizations of history mercilessly knocked down because they refused to admit defeat and went against the currents of Time and compare the glory of those that kneeled before the great conquerer.