The Parallel Lives

  In “A Brief History of Time,” first published in 1988, the British physicist Stephen Hawking explained how space and time are connected, interwoven, interdependent with each other. Since the universe displays massive amounts of space, it also displays massive amounts of time. 

     When a massive object, like a planet, enters into spacetime, a warping, called gravity, results.

     Certain wise human beings on planet Earth noticed that nature gives us just three sets of time: a day based upon the sun rising and setting, a month based upon the moon’s transformation from full moon to full moon every 29.5 days, and a year based upon the completion of four seasons. 

     In an attempt to control and rein in time, certain other wise human beings chopped up time into segments: seconds, minutes, hours, and weeks.           

     It was the ancient Egyptians who decided to split daylight into twelve segments. How?

     They looked at a sundial that threw a shadow onto a plate, and then set a series of twelve stakes onto that plate that marked the shadow’s progress throughout the day. Why 12 and not ten? The reason is that those Egyptians used base 12, the duodecimal number system.

     The ancient Greeks made the hours uniform, the same length throughout the year. It was an ancient Greek named Hipparchus, who suggested that officials divide a day into 24 hours, based upon 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness that appear on the two equinoxes each year.

     The ancient Babylonians in Mesopotamia came up with the idea of splitting the hour into 60 minutes and the minute into 60 seconds. Why 60? Those ancient Babylonians used base 60, a sexagesimal system.

     They noticed that 60 is highly divisible, more so than 100. A total of 12 numbers can divide evenly into 60: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60. However, only 9 numbers can divide evenly into 100: 1, 2, 4 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, and 100.

     The seven days for one week originated with the Babylonians and Sumerians, who gave seven celestial names to a sequence of seven days, including the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Three of those names, you and I still use: Sunday, Monday, and Saturday.

     Tyr, or Tiu, or Tiw was the Norse god of war and justice. Woden was an Anglo-Saxon god, similar to the Norse God, Odin. Thor was the Norse god of thunder, and Freyja was the Norse goddess of marriage. From the Norse gods, we have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

     Because the year is 365 1/4 days long, every four years, the calendar-makers add one more day onto February, and call it leap year. Last year was leap year, and the next is 2028.

     If you divide 365 days by 7, you get 52.14 weeks. That fractional part of a week equals one day. Hence, in 2025, January 1 was on a Wednesday, and December 31 will fall on a Wednesday, 52 weeks and one day more. In 2026, the year begins on a Thursday, and will end on a Thursday.

     Each week contains 168 hours: 56 hours for sleep (8 hours x 7 days), 40 hours of work at the office or school or shop (8 hours x 5 days), 32 hours for the weekend (16 hours awake x 2 days), and 40 free-time hours, mornings and evenings when we eat, relax, and reconnect with family.

     Monday is Labor Day, a day when our country recognizes our work force with a day off from work. Throughout the year, an employee exchanges her or his time for a paycheck, a bargain. 

     Time moves forward, forcing more space between us today and our day of conception and birth. Time never stops sprinting. Indeed, it speeds up as we age. Ken Lange said, “Time is relentless, marching forever onward, stripping away everything it its path.”

     A quote on time. “Children and spouses spell the word ‘love’ with four letters t-i-m-e.” Our affection for children and spouses equals the time and space we give to them.

     Enjoy your day off on Monday.