#199: Time to wipe the slate clean

Why is it more difficult to change as we get older? Blame it on time.

Time enables us to frame our experiences as past- present- future. If we were to experience time as only now, then we would find it impossible to make sense of events.

Our memory of many yesterdays creates the comfort that there will be a tomorrow. And therein lies the problem. Memory creates the illusion that the future will be a continuation, an extension, of the past.

The more yesterdays we have accumulated, the more we approach the future expecting continuity, not disruption. That is why we find it so difficult to ‘start over’ and to ‘begin anew’.

Infants do not have many yesterdays. To them, every day is a blank slate, a new beginning full of surprises and adventures.

Change would be so much easier if every day was a clean slate. But with age, it seems, a clean slate is only possible if memory is wiped clean.


I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2008 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
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