If you really think about it, time is an incredible thing. Time is what makes our lives move. In history, time is different. Ten years can be anything and not important or it can be short lived but incredible. Usually, it is not important and basically, non-existent. But ask an average normal person how they feel about it and they’ll tell you, ten years, a decade, is a very large amount of time. Why is it? Well, I think it is because our lives are relatively short. Most of us try to hold on to everything and do as much as we can and I have come to believe that it is because through the advancements we have made, the speed at which things move along also increases, making time go by faster. But the idea of time is still fascinating and this change in the amount of things accomplished in a certain time frame also increases, as we get more advanced.
In this modern age, as humans, we are all moving at a fast pace. We are always busy. But how does time relate to history and to what we have been reading? Easy…
The Black Death. It was a terrible time, people were dying all over Europe and as time continued, it seemed as if it would never end. The expression forever relates to the feeling of something either highly desired or highly undesired seeming to continue for an extended amount of time, in this case, undesired. Meaning it went by slowly. Much of the world’s known population at that time was lost and all kinds of people were struggling to cope with the after-effects left by the plague. In other words, things were tough all over and life was basically at a halt for most people. Soon, things slowly went back to normal and life sped up again, to it’s previous, if not a little faster, speed. Although the pandemic was not terribly long lasting, the effect and influence it had in our capability to continue improving as a specie made it that much more important. It’s a good example of how things happening in short amounts of time can be highly influential and important.
The Industrial Revolution. It was clearly the moment at which time really began to pick up a faster pace. Humans became more influential to one another, interactions rose, and a day had more activities in it. The development of cities and the increase of population caused a constant need of supplies being provided, sources being used, and of energy circulating. The image that pops into my head when thinking of the revolution is of a petroleum pumper slowly increasing it’s speed, and also, the most commonly seen image, people walking and increasing their speed as their surroundings change. It’s interesting. The first image, the one of the petroleum pumper relates in my head to the symboliscism of earth not having unlimited resources and the second image relates to the so commonly seen sign of STOP.
That leads me to how they both connect to time and speed, literally, how. As our pace increases, is it possible that at one point, everything we know of will come to a sudden stop? Or will it reach a peak and just begin to fall?
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