Time Rift

Biological rhythms, ages old

Rent asunder by

Twentieth-Century-Plus nanoseconds

Boot Up

Run

Delete

Orientation, time accelerated

Clocktime invented, abandoned

Turn on

Run

Upgrade

Ancient time, so well forgotten

Speed of Eternity, ignored

(unnatural suspension)

Mother Earth

Father Time

Brother Rules

Bonds with the Natural World, severed

Mother stifled, father secluded

Brother

Run

Imitate

Acclimation to the Nanosecond

Temporal alienation, begin Newtime

Trapped!

Run

Fragment

Biorhythms, Confusion, Forgotten, Cut Off, Alteration

Failure!

Go Back

Do Over

Try Again

Today's generation of children actually have to be 'taught' what even the simple things like 'day and night' are and how these fit into a larger picture of the cycles of the universe.

Children today, beyond toddler age understanding of day being 'playtime' and night being 'sleeping time,' learn almost all their information about 'how time works' from sitting in classrooms.

No longer do children understand the cycle of day and night by observing dawn and dusk, perhaps with a connection to certain labours connected with the earth. Their parents' schedule has nothing to do with the natural occurrences of daybreak and nightfall, but everything to do with buzzers, bells, alarms and rings - to tell everyone in the household when the day begins and ends.

"Breaks in the day" are not even related to labour today - to actually needing a 'break' from activity. Instead, breaks are taken when a bell rings, when the appropriate time is displayed on our clocks. Regardless of 'job,' or whether or not a person's job is physical or not, 'breaks' are designed by schedules, even if someone taking a break feels little need for one, physically or mentally.

Lunchtime happens, throughout Western workplaces, whether the labourer feels hungry or not. If the clock shows that it is the lunchtime break hour, then schedules enforce that people 'do lunch' at this appointed time, regardless of nutritional need. By contrast, if one is hungry beyond the appropriate hour and requires nutritional balancing, one waits until another appropriate clock-time, according to work schedule.

Children today learn that carrots, potatoes, other beneficial life NEEDS - these come in bags and boxes. One retrieves this sustenance from bins, tables, buckets, and counters inside stores. Our kids today have to be taught, very deliberately, how life necessities like FOOD - come into being! Even when this 'lesson' is accomplished, many children are shown 'mass production' methods of growing food and still may not understand the concept of 'farm' or 'earth' properly without additional 'lessons.'

A few generations ago, meals, sleep, socializing was governed by forces much more connected with the Earth and Universe. There actually existed - reasonable times for sleeping, for visiting with friends and family, for eating meals and other life activities.

Today, many important, healthy life activities are shunted and cut off by our technology. If we are hungry, we consult our schedules. If we get tired, we consult our schedules and, if our schedule says we are still supposed to be working, then something must be WRONG WITH US! If we wake up in the middle of the night, fully refreshed from whatever time we've already slept, we will find this UNACCEPTABLE, as well - and typically will try to force more sleep upon ourselves...and in turn, by the time we get to our 'daily, regular activities' hours later, we will report that we did not sleep well or had a 'fit-ful' unhealthy night sleep. It is entirely possible that we simply awakened because our bodies had already gained enough sleep!

The 8-hour sleep schedule is highly debatable.

Check your history books and documents carefully - you will find that it was only once the Industrial Age, primarily, that very particular 'sleep schedules' were literally ENFORCED by governments and top-heavy class systems.

Much, much earlier, still in areas considered 'Western,' St. Benedict incorporated a sleep schedule, too. It wasn't an 8-hour 'downtime,' and offered much less rest. Again, as with our present notion of sleep-time, the Saint's 'downtime' suggestions weren't based on any 'health' concepts OR on 'natural world' considerations. They became 'the scheduled times' for sleep

Sleeptime A.K.A. Schedule, control, time and behavior manipulation.

The St. Benedict sleep schedule, however, is proof that people can exist WELL, literally for YEARS on much less sleep than 8 hours, and also be very highly functioning, to boot.

It is not thought that the St. Benedict 'control' measures were about 'manipulation via sleep deprivation' - or, rarely do scholars see this as St. Benedict's main intent regarding his rules around sleep times. However, there is no doubt that the 'schedule' was a very definite 'control measure,' for the monks.

At the time, his "Rules" were considered very radical - as well as 'progressive' and to some, quite wonderful - if not severe.

St. Benedict literally 'manipulated lives through the tool of the clock.' Progress, right?

Today, our 'progress' - manipulated lives via 'the clock tool' is much, much more drastic! Yet, we are SO inherently disposed to current 'time ideology' that we are not even AWARE of this manipulation.

This is, however...

Progress.

Right?