Geography of Time

TIME is on my mind. Time magazine. On time. Behind time. Overtime. Over time. I finished reading A Geography of Time by Robert Levine. Levine is a social psychologist and world traveler. He studies 31 different countries and finds that tempo is a function of economic well-being, degree of industrialization, population size, climate and values. In poor, agricultural, hot, small towns, people find it exciting to watch paint dry.

Two brothers in Kabul are looking for one another in the city. Problem is that they hadn't agreed on what year to meet.

People tend to perceive time passing more quickly when experiences are pleasant, carry little sense of urgency, when they are busy, when they experience variety, and during activities that engage right-hemisphere modes of thinking. Why?

· Pleasant memories fit our patterns of thought and take up less cortical space, to they seem of shorter duration.
· Westerners think of inactivity as "nothing happening", dead space, but "…half a century to wait is not too long according to Chinese concepts of time."
· The U.S. is addicted to change but "most people in the world…know exactly where they will be living, what job they will be doing, and even what foods they will be eating for the rest of their lives, providing they have any resources at all."
· "The left hemisphere analyzes over time, whereas the right hemisphere synthesizes over space."

Joyce Carol Oates wrote, "Time is the element in which we exist… We are either borne along by it or drowned in it."