Time: Losing A Day In Our Lives…
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Albert Einstein
Time: Losing A Day In Our Lives... Samoa Upolu - Where time will skip 24 hours...
Time: Losing A Day In Our Lives... Samoa country map. Time is an illusion...
What would you do if you lost a 24 hour day? Zapped off the calender. Gone! At 11:59:59 p.m, the island nation of Samoa (not to be confused with American Samoa) will lose a full 24 hour day. Yes, you read it right! This tiny South Pacific island will move from one side of the International Dateline to the other. They will skip Friday and jump right into Saturday. No debates, discussions or acrimony over lost birthdays, anniversaries or vacation time. No deaths or births will be recorded for December 30th either… It won’t exist this year but will play catch up next year. Immediately, my antenna went up when I first heard this. Time is an invented construct. We create it to fit our scheduled needs in every nation and everyone follows along; marching to the drum of a trumped up calender that could be changed in one fell swoop. What Samoa is doing, brings to the fore the conversation around real time; what is real time? Is there even such a thing? Is it just another dimension of reality that shifts as we cross nations and zones? We fall back and fall forward an hour every year… Does the actual day change? Sure, it gets darker earlier but in the real sense of time, did it shift?
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” Douglas Adams
Time: Losing A Day In Our Lives... Time falls back and forwards but not this Samoan waterfall - Fuipisia Falls
“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t
own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep
it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it
you can never get it back.” Harvey MacKay
When were you last caught in a timezone shift? The people of Samoa have all agreed to give up Friday for the sake of creating a closer time schedule in sync with Australia, New Zealand, China and Tonga. The new arrangement will make it easy to do business too. As it was explained by a Samoan guest on NPR.org this afternoon, for years, being on a different timezone with the countries listed above meant that business was not being conducted effectively. When Australian businesses were ready on Monday to get orders in and transactions completed, Samoans were in Church… because it was Sunday. Now all will be on board and they can work together in the same time zone. Of course, this got me thinking about the illusion we call time. The time zones we live in are created by man and don’t necessarily accurately reflect how/when we use our time. As of now, Samoa is five hours behind the East Coast. However, when it crosses over to the spanking new dateline of its choosing, it will be 19 hours ahead us here in NY and the rest of the East Coast. Is that cool or crazy? What do you think? More below. 😉
“We don’t have an eternity to realize our dreams, only the time we are here.” Susan Taylor
Time: Losing A Day In Our Lives... Where sky meets sea, there is no time..
What would you do differently if you found out that a week was going to be zapped from your calender? Would it matter? If we see time as a construct created by man; malleable and uncertain, maybe it won’t matter as long as it doesn’t interfere with our “plans.” I grew up hearing about African and European time. The former is relaxed, free flowing and perhaps frustrating for some; things happen when people show up at whatever time the Gods allowed them to leave home. The latter is more rigid and set; inflexible and unchangeable… or perhaps not. In the West, we talk a lot about wasting time, wasting precious time. Is there really such a thing or does time take its time to get us from here to there, as ordained by…? Perhaps Alice Bloch is right when she says, “We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.” Kudos to the people of Samoa; as they shift their lives on the western half of the Samoan Islands! What are your thoughts? What would you do if you lost a day? When were you last caught in a timezone? What would you do differently if you found out that a week was going to be zapped from your calender? Do share! Thank you. 😉
Positive Motivation Tip: Time like life can be ephemeral… Create yours and live the best life you can.
Related articles
- Time zone change will help trade, says Samoan PM – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
- Samoa time zone jumps forward a day – ABC Online (abc.net.au)
- The country that’s going to bed tonight and waking up on Saturday (independent.co.uk)
- Entire day disappears in Samoa (smh.com.au)
- Samoa skips a Friday and goes back to the future side of dateline (guardian.co.uk)
- Times Are Changing: Samoa To ‘Skip A Day’ (news.sky.com)
- Samoa to skip 30 December 2011 as it crosses international dateline (mirror.co.uk)
PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All Photos Samoa Upolu, Samoa country map, Fuipisia Falls, Apolima Strait, via Wikipedia or via Flickr
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet
Interesting to read this post right now (in time) … I am on the the exact chapter today in the book “Mutant Message Down Under” by Marlo Morgan about the part where the Aboriginal Tribe of Australia is sharing with her their construct of time as they know it and they do not celebrate birthdays by date but they celebrate each person’s special talent as it is warranted. There are no calendar days for the tribe, they move with the land in the lands pace and so they never need to know the time or the date.
Now that is fascinating, and probably more in line with the way time works in nature… free flowing not controlled or contrived. Thank you for your insights and visit! Will return same. Happy Holidays! 🙂
Oh wow, must say I learned something new. I didn’t think that possible. Thank you for sharing the information! God Bless 🙂
I didn’t think it was possible either. So, I learned something new too… and fascinating. TY 🙂
Beautiful. A same thing will not happen. That’s true.
I agree… what an amazing topic on such a beautiful part of the world. TY! 🙂
If I get to loose a 24 time period, I will choose the day that we were made victims of a con man. That one day meant years of less pain, struggles and sadness. It’s amazing how one day or even 1 hour can make a difference. But then there’s fate. I guess destiny allowed certain things to happen. For what purpose, I can only hope that it’s for the best. God has his reasons, right?
Wishing you all the blessings in 2012. Happy New Year!!!
I hear you and wish that were the case for all of us too… but time heals all and God has reasons… Be blessed! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
This was totally fascinating. I had not heard anything like it. But reading, the thought of losing a week didn’t actually have me feel I’d lose a week of my life because it’s true, it’s a construct, and no matter what day or time you call it, it still remains: it is now.
I love quotes by Einstein!
Happy New Year 🙂 And thanks for enlightening me. I live in Australia & I had no idea about this.
I was quite intrigued by it all. Plus I heard their move meant they were the first country in the world to celebrate the New Year… so cool! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
This was interesting. How weird. And yet, this week while we have all been ill and stayed indoors without contact with the rest of the world, time has lost its meaning to us.
Isn’t that something that several of us spent the holiday in bed? When I read yours and Robyn’s post I was so shocked because I thought I was the only one sick as a dog and barely making it through Christmas Day… never happened before too! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
This is a very interesting information, I have never known about what happen with Samoan Islands. We really have to appreciate every time we have and not waste it. Time is very precious.
Happy New Year 🙂
Neither have I. It is an unusual story. TY! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
Time to me is a constuct of ambiguity at best. Most of the “time” it exist in our heads. However, it seems to me, that time is only truly relevant to the moment or reality of birth and death itself.
Well said Walter and a reminder of it all is what happened in Samoa! TY! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
Very interesting to consider, and especially with what the Samoans are doing. Very interesting in deed. I live in a world that is so ordered by time, I can’t really get my head wrapped around the concept of simply skipping over a day. Lots of questions raised about this thing of “time.”
It raised a lot of questions and then came back to the NOW! 🙂 ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
Time as we think of it to meet appointment or celebrate milestones has an important objective of understanding and uniting us, I think. Is it really “time” that we find distasteful or the need to do an act within that artificial construct when we would prefer to do it when we feel the motivation?
Time has always fascinated me as a dimension of reality. What exists now only does so within this time. If you go back to – for example – 1900 – what existed then (mostly) is gone and been replaced with what exists in our reality now. Time is real and ever changing. The artificiality of losing or adding a day or hour is to facilitate that unity within our current reality so I find that pretty cool. Mind provoking post Elizabeth! ( & I love Douglas Adams!!)
Sorry for spelling errors! Commenting by phone this am!!
No worries… we all have errors. 😉
Wow! You dug deep on this one Karen… I get the gist about why we need order to stem the possibility of chaos… True and then the rest is malleable. TY! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
Wow that’s so interesting. I didn’t even know that. Time is so precious so lest not waste them. Thanks and hoping you will have a great New Year! 🙂
I didn’t either… fascinating, eh? ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 ! TY!
Fascinating, Eliz! I’m with Island Traveler, If I had to lose a day or a week, I could pick a few that I would just as soon never occured! But then again, maybe I would have just had another bad day! Did you ever see the movie Brigadoon about the village that only comes into existence for one day every 20 years? Talk about making the most of your time!
Happy New Year! My resolution is to try and do so much better about keeping up with fav blogs like yours! Thanks for adding “Mirth & Motivation” to my life!
I hear you too… WE all would love to lose those days… But we survived them and here we are. Thank God! TY! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
Very interesting post…I had not given this time laspe a second thought..as I have worked 24/7 in the past..now, that I have time to live my life…now with normal working hrs and days for myself..I value these special times to be with family, friends, and more “me” time. Thanks for sharing this information…!! Happy New Year, hope this will be a year filled with joy to all.
I know… you are not alone. We focus on the present and that is important. TY! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
Its all a bit mind wobbling…but here is hoping you have a year filled with all the time you need and then a little left over to share!
Same to you dear one! TY! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
And then out there in space, it appears to slow.
I think that it’s only the fact of the certainty of death that gives us the sense of lost time, wasted time, otherwise it wouldn’t really matter (or would it…my brain’s starting to hurt :))
Very interesting post – thx
I hear you … and my head hurts too.TY! 😆 Yes, death is the great equalizer on these matters… and birth too. ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
I love this article Impressive 🙂
Awesome to hear it from you. TY! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
I would take all the bad days I had and dump them into that one 24-hour period–gone forever!
I’m with you lady! TY and Thank God we made it! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
That is an intriguing event. I’d never heard of anything like that before this year.
Ditto! Wish I were there to enjoy it with them. TY! ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
The more focused I am on living in the eternal NOW . . . the less concerned I become with the passage of time.
We are HERE. And it is NOW. What else is there?
Well said Nancy.
Perfecto Nancy! Yes, we must focus on the NOW and then the rest will follow… no matter what. TY! 😉
♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
This is a fascinating topic. I commend the Samoans for taking the initiative to be innovative about their time and business relationships. It would be fun to have thay happen so we can all throw our worst days in the firepit. As you’ve written in other posts, it is wise to listen to the ancients, the great masters and live in the present. Happy New Year!
B
They are bravo people and innovative too… I admire that level of courage… God bless them! Yes, the ancients never lie. ♥HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂 !
I’ve thought and thought, Elizabeth, but all I can think of is time WAS zapped from my life, although not in the calendar sense.
So I’d just get on with life.
I guess it’s kinda like what happens to the people who are born or die or have anything significant happen on Feb 29. Hope it works out for the Samoans. Interesting post, Elizabeth.