Put a little love in your heart
The Chicago Transit Authority, a jazz fusion band, was not the first to ask- Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? We no longer rely on the sun, moon, and stars as ways to mark time and navigate space. Time and space have always been a fascination- just ask any religious scholar, scientist, sailor, or horologist.
Time-perception, studied by psychologists, cognitive linguists, and neuroscientists, helps us make sense of our inner clocks and the passage of time. Estimating, monitoring time and intervals between events are skills that contribute to the success or challenges of our individual biological stopwatches. Age, neurobiology, emotional states, drugs/medications, and environmental factors, like a pandemic, affect sense of time and intervals between events.
When our sensory systems are heightened, the sounds of metronomes, pendulums, and the second hand of a watch distract us from internal thoughts. School and church bells, and car horns, as we take an extra time at a traffic light, reorient us to our places in time and space. Turning the pages of calendars, responding to alerts from our computers, and even the voice of Alexa, help to remind us of important dates and deadlines.
Our worries about getting, spreading, or dying from COVID-19 have led to increased anxiety, fewer routines, and disruptions to our circadian clocks. Days of sameness contribute to losing track of minutes, hours, or days. We spend days in suspended animation, slow motion, and asynchrony.
Time is tracked or lost, based on the length of a television series, the number of episodes, or hours we spend on social media. As we scroll our Twitter account, we receive messages to refresh the page- there is no way to catch up or get ahead. Messages are distracting, seductive and reminders of constant change. If we try to keep up with the latest posts or tweets, we find ourselves on high alert and in perpetual restart mode.
Although locked in our homes, the Internet highway can take us to far away destinations or on unexpected journeys. Videos and texts from family and friends are attempts to connect or distract us, fill time, or lighten our days. Our mailboxes are overwhelmed with retweeted videos, disparaging messages, and requests to increase cloud storage.
Social media has become a go-to source of entertainment and way to connect to the outside world. Posts, tweets, and retweets run the gamut from objectionable and controversial to flat out offensive, sexist, or racist. Forwarding, retweeting, and liking posts has led to fueling what is now known as the cancel culture phenomenon.
It started as an Internet joke- but has become steeped in controversy. Based on one’s perceptions and perspectives, posts challenge the balance between perceived civil responsibilities, freedom of speech and First Amendment rights. Accuracy of reporting, judgment, and accountability are irrelevant. All it takes is a smart phone to capture a moment and for a tweet to go viral. Once the mob mentality takes over the ramifications are endless.
Thinking about, commenting on, or judging the lives, language, and actions of others may distract us from our own limited lives and worries. But the lives of private citizens, public figures, cultures, statues, artwork, or ideologies are all at risk for being called out or in, cancelled out altogether. One seemingly innocent criticism or comment creates a ground swell of support and can lead to public shaming, loss of reputations, jobs, status, or careers.
Ask any teenager- they can tell you a lot about their experiences with cancel culture. Many of them have been exposed to hurtful comments and public embarrassment. Victimization has led to isolation, suicidal ideation, and suicide. Social media is a Petri dish for public shaming. But certainly, teenagers are not the only ones.
Sometimes women take harder hits in the press than men. Jill Biden was called out when addressed as Dr. Biden, Neera Tanden, for being too present on Twitter, and Jen O’Malley Dillon for using one F-bomb, oh my. Even Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris was called out for her citizenship or her racial identities. Recently FLOTUS’ was called out for wearing $2000 Louboutin boots while much of America is hunkering down, starving, disenfranchised, homeless, or jobless. But that’s another story.
For the past five years, members of the Administration of Darkness have participated in throwing shade and doubt and providing cover for the cancel culture. Society has become inured by this president’s commentary. Mostly everyone is fair game — a journalist with a disability, the press, doctors, the CDC, political foes and friends. Foreign dictators and autocrats are spared. But if people play the game by his rules and keep their mouths shut, they reap the reward of grabbing dangled pardons.
2020 is taking its time to disappear into the dark winter’s night. Perhaps agreeing to one final collective calling out 2020 will help. Take one last look at the year for all its misery, disappointments, missed opportunities, broken dreams, abandoned plans, and cancellations. Put it in the loss/lost column, resolve to move forward, and don’t look back. GOOD RIDDANCE 2020!
The countdown clock to a new year and a new administration are in motion. The ball in Times Square will make it’s slow decent to officially acknowledge the arrival of the long-awaited 2021.
Whether one considers 2021 the beginning of a new year or the start of a new decade is debatable. There are so many calendars from which to choose, or clocks to follow. According to Einstein, the distinction between past, present, and future is only a persistent illusion. In other words, time is an illusion.”
So, here’s to a fresh start, a clean slate, new beginnings and boundless possibilities. We welcome you with the hope of health, freedom, justice, and compassion for all. Our hearts are open and our sleeves are rolled up!
