The concept of a sundial is one of the oldest forms of keeping time, as simple as putting a stick in the ground and watching the shadow change, humans (sapiens have done this for an awful long time.
On reflection this is merely just watching the world revolve, it is humanity as its most basic level.
And so the world will not always be as it is now and it has not always been the way it is now. Capitalism as an empire will fail and consumerism will eat itself and disappear. It used to upset me the way things seemed to be going but it’s self limiting and the earth will protect itself in one way or another and the days will continue to pass.
Since the earliest time people have known this so it’s still amazing to me that it’s only over the past few decades that we have achieved this situation of where we waste so much time on imagined objects and things, which we consider to be important because of a world view that has been instilled upon us. This view is fleeting at best and something which is very difficult to resist because we are surrounded by it but something which resist we must at least in part to remain sane.
When people moved on from sticks and shadows they invented sundials and they were then often endorsed with a motto. There is a Wikipedia page here which shows a list of mottos so the people who made sundials understood about the passing of time and often left a motto on the sundial related to their philosophical approach.
Some of the best ones that I read are here in case you don’t have time to read them all:
‘Use the hours, don’t count them’
‘Make haste but slowly’
‘An hour passes slowly but the years go by quickly’
‘Look at my shadow and you will see your life’
Worth a thought when your life is overcome with inane rubbish, worth remembering that the only thing you have (apart from your friends and family) that you can never get again is now.
(Ross, you know me well. Thank you for the heads up on sundials and s-town)
Note: the concept for this one comes from a Podcast called ‘s-town’ introduced to me by my friend Ross Anderson. If you’re looking for something different and quite extraordinary, perhaps you like the author David Mitchell or perhaps you like this blog, I would investigate it and make sure you get to episode two.
Blog Post Number - 1257
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