Happy day! Everyone,
The thoughts for us to ponder.
From
Mr. Loh Lawrence
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Gone in the blink of an eye
January 1, 2011
Towards mid-nite on New Year Eve, my 16 year old daughter kept on urging us to watch the 2011 countdown that is broadcast live from New York Time Square. So my wife and I joined her. Like all young people, she is anxious to leave the past and looking forward for new possibilities in the New Year. For my wife and myself, we have accepted the reality: This holiday seems to come around too often, too soon for us. It is more like, as many older folks feel, that time is slipping away from us.
I'm glad to say goodbye to 2010, but the way the years seem to fly by, I expect 2011 to pass in a blink.
And I'm not the only one greeting this New Year with a mix of optimism and melancholy.
Research shows that the older we get, the faster the years seem to go by. And it's not just fear of our own mortality that troubles us.
Scientists aren't sure how or why it happens, but people do change the way they perceive time as they age. They just have this sense, this feeling that time is going faster than they are. This experience seems to be universal. The perception has been documented over the years, across cultures and around the world.
And New Year's Eve is coming around more quickly and more often.
That's not the only theory, of course.
One explanation draws on basic math. When you're 10 years old, a year is one-tenth of your life. But by the time you hit middle age, each year has become proportionately smaller. It feels like time is flying by because the years seem shorter the more you collect them.
Another theory relies on the mind's mechanics. Our brains record new experiences in exquisite detail, then carefully preserves them in our memory. But when a similar experience occurs again, the brain recognizes it and responds with a quick sketch that is crammed into an overstuffed drawer.
So milestones dominate our memories. The Technicolor moments of youth persist, while recollections of the mundane fade. That's why later years — sprinkled with fewer vivid first-time experiences — can seem to pass in a blurry haze: quickly, with less to hold on to.
And it explains why I can remember so clearly the fantastic family dinner gathering we had 30 years ago, but I couldn't tell you for the life of me what I did a year ago on New Year's Eve.
I'm not sure if I can remember this year's party, but it's one that I will fully enjoy and my eyes closed as I try to adjust my mind's perception and try my best to slow down time:
“Time flies. It is up to you to be the navigator”
“What lies behind us and lies before us are tinny matters compared to what lies within us.”
