The Circle Game

Is time a line, or a circle?

That’s a trick question, of course. The truth is, we have no idea what time is. Time is an abstract concept that can be represented in mathematical equations, but which only exists relative to its context. Time has no mass, no energy, and no absolute measurable properties. It passes differently depending on an object’s velocity or or its place in a gravitational field. We have no way of knowing if time is just a moment in constant flux or some vast, infinite block in which we occupy just one moment at a time.

In short, we know practically nothing about time. And yet, it weighs constantly on our consciousness, and on how we experience our lives.

In western cultures, time is often portrayed as a line. We see time moving from a frozen, immutable past, through an ephemeral, fleeting present, to an unknowable future. We see life as a unidirectional arrow, pointing from birth to death, and existence as an unbroken chain of cause and effect, with one link leading inevitably to the next.

Other cultures view time as a cycle.  Creation leads to growth leads to destruction leads to rebirth, and around and around again. The sun rises and sets. The seasons turn. The rains fill the rivers, run to the sea, and rise back into the sky.

No matter how we think of time, it will always be an abstract representation of something we are unable to fully grasp and describe. That means we can choose to envision it in whatever way makes the most sense for the way we want to live.

Is time a line, or a circle? You choose.