It's weird to see things unfold that others have no idea about. It's like knowing the secret to a magic trick or seeing a model without makeup. I recently had a similar experience. I watched an affair unfold before my very eyes. As an outside acquaintance to a group of four people (2 couples), I knew enough to know what was going on, but was removed enough that they didn't hide it from me. It all started when the more recent couple (formed out of an affair themselves some 1 and 1/2 years prior) abruptly ended their relationship. The male in the group just broke it off. The very next week I saw or heard about him meeting secretly with the female from the long term couple (dating 4+ years), his friend and roommate being the male in the long-term relationship. He would text her, call her, meet her, and who knows what else. It was shameful to watch, thinking of poor Mr. Long-term being betrayed by his partner and by one of his best friends.
After this continued for a few more days, I had to alert someone. I told my friend, a good friend of Mr. Long-term, who informed me that LT had learned of this very recently and had broken off the long relationship. Then the female from the first relationship found out the reason for her abruptly ended relationship. She too was betrayed by her partner, Mr. Affair and by her friend Mrs. Long-term. It was a sad thing to watch unfold, and I had correctly suspected it for weeks. I was too shy to talk--fear of starting unjustified rumors--until my evidence was more substantiated, but by then it was too late. The affair couple won, at least for now. They get to be happy, while their former partners are stunned and broken. Oh, how horrible I feel knowing what I know, and how it disgusts me to see others treat these conniving con-artists with respect. These are the worst kinds of people, those who will forsake a friend and a long-term partner for an impulsive fling. They deserve each other, at least until one decides to fling with someone else.
Last month one of my English professors was giving a lecture on the history of the railroad and the industrial revolution as it pertained to Thoreau and the character Clifford from Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables. Anyway she got sidetracked and started discussing time zones--she had just read a book about them--and how there weren't any established in the mid to late 1800s. Instead, each railroad station--and each city--kept its own time. This would cause slight confusion and minor inconveniences when traveling between cities, but--because life was more local than today--it worked out just fine. I was thinking how terrible that was and how glad I was to live in a time when the time was the time and everyone had it right. Then I looked at my phone while on the computer, Microsoft time is 3 minutes slower than Verizon time. A friend on a different carrier had time 1 minute slower than Verizon and another friend on another carrier had his time one minute faster than Verizon. I guess this isn't that great of a difference. I mean what is being 4 minutes early or late anyway? Usually it means nothing, but sometimes it can mean a great deal. Maybe the teacher who was perpetually late at arriving and starting class was starting just on time by his cell phone. What about scenarios where time is important?
One college-related example is that of class registration. You cannot register for classes until a certain time, but what if you are 4 minutes behind. In this situation, popular or in-demand classes fill up in a minute or two. They may be filled before you even think you can log in. You miss the class you need to graduate on time and must pay money to take the class over the summer, delaying graduation. In delaying graduation, you incur greater debt and possibly miss out on a dream job. Maybe the economy crashes and the company that would have hired you months ago, now won't. Sure it is a worst case scenario, but it demonstrates the importance of time and accuracy of time. A similar scenario would be in buying tickets for a special event, ticketing doesn't start until X o'clock, but if you call 4 minutes early you may lose your spot in line or your chance of getting through; four minutes late and you may not be able to get a ticket.
The point of this little rant is that timing is everything these days. Time is precious and nearly everything is based on time. We have international clocks and timing and accuracy measures for a reason. We depend too much on time for time to be a changeable thing. It may not have mattered in the 1800s, but in a world in which nanoseconds make a huge difference--have accurate time matters.
And because you read my rant, I will reward you with a classic:
I went to a concert last night and was pleasantly surprised to find that I really liked one of the opening acts. They are a 7 member band from Toronto called "Down With Webster". Although I saw them in a small club in Pittsburgh, I feel like they could hit it really big soon. Here's a sample:
Also, I went there to see Cute is What We Aim For--another solid band my girlfriend really likes:
and finally I've just had this song stuck in my head:
