Passing time

“Now lad, you don’t want to go wishing your time away. It’ll go fast enough without that.”

That was the comment I got from my father when asked what I was thinking about one day. I must have been wishing it was the next day and then I could…..whatever. Anyway, he’d sown another seed in my mind, and I’ve thought about time ever since, at varying intervals, exploring the whys and wherefores of it all. But it was only a few days ago that I linked my thoughts about time with chance, and it opened up a whole new world of possibilities, which I have found both exciting and depressing.

I mean, I could have been born 4,000-odd years back in time, when man was still a hunter. Perhaps the discovery in 1991 of the Ice Man’s body, high up in the mountains between Austria and Italy, started that train of thought? How I have admired and respected the courage of that man, our unknown ancestor. Where was he from? Where was he going? Why? Who had he left behind? And of course, what did they do when he didn’t return…?

But the most interesting thing for me is this: we and our immediate ancestors reach back as far as that man, and then even further back still. We can link with him. Our bodies may have developed slightly differently since then, but our essential make-up is the same. Our minds may contain more information, but wouldn’t he think as we think? He’d think about what was around the next bend of the river, and over the top of the hill. He’d love and hate, laugh and cry, and wish it was tomorrow, up there alone on that mountain top as it was getting dark. He’d wish that it was light again so that he could resume his journey. And, of course, he’d think about life and death.

We’ll never know his true thoughts, but we do know that the cold, intense and bone-chilling, finally overtook his ability to remain alive. Then he had no time left. When he was found in 1991, his spirit and personality had long since gone; only what was left of his clothing remained. That, and his wonderfully crafted creations of tools and weapons, and the sense of his courageous effort in beginning his journey so many years ago. Time and chance had worked against him.

For all that, he didn’t die in vain, because I’m sure that throughout the world, where people have heard of his story, imaginations have been lit which will set a course for many an adventurous soul. And thus it has been ever since man first walked upright on this earth.

And I think my father was right: we shouldn’t wish our time away.

Dennis Crompton © 1996