Apparently, though I hadn't realised it until someone mentioned it, wordcraft - a message board I mention often enough here - has been running for seven years now. I wasn't in right at the start but pretty soon afterwards.
So, seven years, eh?
Congratulations are certainly in order.
It illustrates nicely a distinction in the way that we perceive time that I first encountered in a televised lecture by Jonathan Miller, many years ago. We perceive two different kinds of time: "time passing" and "time passed".
"Time passing" proceeds at a slow, leisurely pace. Over the seven years of wordcraft our debates have often ebbed and flowed through weeks or even months of steady measured discussion. Starting from the nominal topic posted they have veered off on new courses, following all kinds of relevant and irrelevant currents. There has been no special urgency, even in our games where the deadlines are frequently extended until enough people take part.
But "time passed" is another matter. Suddenly someone says, "Hey, did you know it's been seven years since we started?" and straight away that seven years shrinks to seven seconds. Seven years have gone in a moment solely because our attention has been drawn to them. Seven years ago I was a different me and although I can enumerate the things I've done and seen in that time I have no emotional grasp of the period. It's gone. Lost in a single lightning-bolt moment of saying "Hey, did you know it's been seven years?"
No matter how slow the time was in passing, it was too quick when viewed from here, too quick once passed. The fact is driven home by the loss of some of our members, most recently Jerry. It's a gloomy thought but we are all seven years older, seven years slower and seven years closer to death. But when all is said and done perhaps the time passing is more important than the time passed. Having known Jerry and missann and Morgan is, after all, more important than having lost them.
Seven years from now someone will say, "Hey, did you know it's fourteen years since wordcraft started?" and, assuming I'm still here, I'll suddenly feel seven years older again, but in the meantime there will have been seven more years of time passing.
So, seven years, eh?
Congratulations are certainly in order.
It illustrates nicely a distinction in the way that we perceive time that I first encountered in a televised lecture by Jonathan Miller, many years ago. We perceive two different kinds of time: "time passing" and "time passed".
"Time passing" proceeds at a slow, leisurely pace. Over the seven years of wordcraft our debates have often ebbed and flowed through weeks or even months of steady measured discussion. Starting from the nominal topic posted they have veered off on new courses, following all kinds of relevant and irrelevant currents. There has been no special urgency, even in our games where the deadlines are frequently extended until enough people take part.
But "time passed" is another matter. Suddenly someone says, "Hey, did you know it's been seven years since we started?" and straight away that seven years shrinks to seven seconds. Seven years have gone in a moment solely because our attention has been drawn to them. Seven years ago I was a different me and although I can enumerate the things I've done and seen in that time I have no emotional grasp of the period. It's gone. Lost in a single lightning-bolt moment of saying "Hey, did you know it's been seven years?"
No matter how slow the time was in passing, it was too quick when viewed from here, too quick once passed. The fact is driven home by the loss of some of our members, most recently Jerry. It's a gloomy thought but we are all seven years older, seven years slower and seven years closer to death. But when all is said and done perhaps the time passing is more important than the time passed. Having known Jerry and missann and Morgan is, after all, more important than having lost them.
Seven years from now someone will say, "Hey, did you know it's fourteen years since wordcraft started?" and, assuming I'm still here, I'll suddenly feel seven years older again, but in the meantime there will have been seven more years of time passing.
3 comments:
Good morning Bob,
hope you are fine. Didn't know about this project and find it very interesting - thank you for sharing.
About words: remember to have listen to a BBC WorldService program on the radio, allowing persons to talk about a subject for a certain amount of time without saying particular words.
Loved it. Learned much English from it. Sadly can't receive it here in Athens.
Please have a nice start into the new week.
You may be thinking f the program Just A Minute where the guests talk for a minute without repeating themselves, deviating from the subject or hesitating.
If so, you can get it by computer on the BBC web site. It's currently broadcast on BBC Radio 7.
Even if that's not the program you are thinking of, it's still worth listening.
As a language teacher I have used a variant on it where the students have to speak for a minute (or sometimes two) without pronunciation mistakes, grammar mistakes or hesitation.
Yes, yes that was the program. Oh, I just repeated a word, even the first one...with an internet connection with less than 2MBite listening to Radio is a bit difficult, but I'll try...bringing back memories from five years ago.
Post a Comment