Humping the annus

Today marks the midpoint of the year 2009.  January 1 through July 1 makes 182 days, and we have 182 more days to go after today to reach the end of 2009.  On leap years, the midpoint lies between July 1 and July 2, but on other years it’s in the middle of July 2.

The exact middle doesn’t come at noon, however.  Because the year begins and ends in Standard Time, the midpoint will be at 1PM Daylight Saving Time (for those who observe it) – and on leap years it would come at 1AM, July 2 DST.

It’s hard to believe that the year is already half gone.  Perhaps an optimist would say that it’s half unexperienced.  Each year seems to go by faster than the last one.  I’m not alone in that perception – that observation has become so common that it often serves as conversation filler.

My own theory for why time seems to pass more quickly the older you grow is that each segment of time (day, week, month, year) is a smaller percentage of your life so far.  When you were ten a year was 10% of your life, and it seemed to take forever to get through a grade at school.  Now that I’m approaching fifty (much like a cat approaching a bath), it takes the passage of five years to seem that long.

That also explains why older people often get confused over what decade they’re talking about.  “Back in ‘64 – no wait, it was ‘74”  heck, it all flies by so quickly you can’t keep it straight.  It doesn’t bode well for my experience of the rest of my life.  Will I just increasingly fast-forward this movie until it ends with a click?  It’s an old lesson, but one I need to learn again and again:  take time to experience Today.

Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly–and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.

– The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Fitzgerald translation