Excuse me, do you have the decade?

Somewhere in heaven an angel is saying: “I can’t believe it’s already been 5,771 years since Creation. It went by so fast”. Down here on earth, an astrophysicist is chiming: “It seems like the Big Bang was just yesterday”.

Here in Georgia, it seems like each time I turn around I am refilling my weekly pill dispenser, whose daily compartments become more crowded with each passing year. One’s ownership of a pill dispenser is, in itself, a confirmation of the all too rapid passing of time. Jo and I are approaching our 30th anniversary and our little birds have left the nest. It seems just yesterday that they were eating regurgitated worms from our mouths. This may explain their intense desire to find themselves in remote locations. Alya is planning to complete her PhD in Developmental Biology in December and has begun looking at post-doctoral fellowships. Her patient efforts to explain her research to us always end with the same phrase: “Where did I lose you?” Nomi has completed her undergraduate education at McDaniel College in Westminster and has begun her efforts for Americorps. She will spend the next 12 months linking students at her alma mater with volunteer opportunities in Carroll County. She has inherited her parents’ social work genes. G-d help her. A six foot tall and bearded Jacob graduated from Weber High School this past spring. As I write he is in the Holy Land of Israel where he will spend nine months on the Habonim Dror Workshop program. These are truly the days of awe.

Speaking of the Days of Awe, it is a little known fact that Einstein’s journey to conceptualize the space time continuum began with the phrase: “Rosh Hashanah is early this year.” Clock towers had nothing to do with this. Rather, he sat in Congregation Ein Zman in Bern, Switzerland, checked his pocket watch for the 19th time and whispered underneath his breath: “I can’t believe its only 10:30 am. How can it be that Rosh Hashanah is early when the rabbi’s sermon seems to last forever?” Thus, the theory of special relativity was born.

Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and even years seem to be less than fully helpful in framing our lives. I’ve come to frame the passing of time with alternative measurements: “Goodness, Gladys, I haven’t seen you since my last periodontal appointment.” Or: “It seems like my colonoscopy was just yesterday.”

I thus offer the following observations to provide a perspective on the passing of time:

• Wile E. Coyote initiated his efforts to kill the Road Runner 62 years ago. His most recent efforts have involved unplugging the Road Runner’s Acme Heart Lung machine.
• It’s been 43 years since the SS Minnow crashed on a deserted island stranding Gilligan, the Skipper too, the millionaire and his wife, the movie star, the professor and Mary Ann.
• The enterprising Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura began to go where no man had gone before 36 years ago. During that same year, Mr. Whipple began his treks through supermarket isles stalking customers who furtively squeezed toilet paper. Perhaps those were simpler days.
• The Band sang and danced at the Last Waltz 33 years ago. Pink Floyd intoned “we don’t need no education” 31 years ago.
• Speaking of “not needing”, 36 years ago, a Mexican bandito exclaimed: “We don't need no stinking badges” in Blazing Saddles. As it turns out, the line first appeared 62 years ago in the film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”.
• It’s been 30 years since John Lennon graced our lives, 15 years since Jerry Garcia was a Friend of the Devil and 9 years since George Harrison sang “My Sweet Lord”.
• The Watergate scandal began 38 years ago; Iran Contra 24 years ago; Whitewater 18 years ago.
• Don McLean drove his Chevy to levee 39 years ago. Sadly, the levee was dry.
• George Jetson turned 86 this year. Jane is 83. They live in a gated community on Mars.

Let us all continue to marvel at the passing of time together and may this 5771 be healthy and sweet for you and your family.