I've always been a visual thinker and no one told me not to do this, it was just how my imagination made sense of the topic that far greater minds have wrestled with through out history.
When most people think of a timeline be it historical or otherwise it tends to be a horizontal linear line moving from left to right. They view if almost from a third person perspective, an observer if you will.
When I view the subject of time in my mind I see it more from a first person perspective with me in the current/now looking ahead to the next minute, hour, day, month, year etc.
How I see a week in my mind.
Even though I've pictured this concept in my head my whole life I've never bothered to share it with anyone, it just never came up and when I have thought about it I've never spent more then a few seconds analyzing it.
One day about five years ago while driving with my wife I was telling her about a cool program I watched on the string theory. During that conversation I thought about my view of time and shared it the best I could.
My wife furrowed her brow and said "Your mind is weird."
I tried doodling out what I meant but it didn't help and we started talking about something else and I once again let the topic slip back into the recesses of my subconscious.
A week in my mind starts on Monday and ends on Sunday. I think that is pretty normal. But for some reason I've always pictured Sunday being off to the left of Saturday. In other words you take a left at Saturday and arrive at Sunday. Why you ask? I have no idea. It just feels that way to me.
So in my head time marches onward forever stair stepping to the left.
( I tried to show my diagram in more of a perspective but I kept having errors with Illustrator.)
This same stair stepping format applies not just to the days in a week but also to the hours in a given day. Instead of a circular aspect for time I've always thought of it within the same visual framework as I do days in a week.
Midnight is like Saturday and so on. At this point in my post you're probably saying the same thing my wife said to me? You have to admit it's at least interesting even if you think it's a bit psycho. But if you think this is weird you should read up on the latest in Quantum Mechanics.
How I see a year in my mind.
This same structure of thinking also shapes my view of an entire year. But I'll admit this has more to do with a feeling then anything else. July and August feel like a Saturday, September feels like a Sunday and so on. And once everything is moving to the left.
The Stair Stepping of Time.
So why would I devote a blog post to this? Well, because it came up again today. I was driving somewhere with my daughter and she asked "Where are we going?" to which I replied "We'll take a left at Saturday."
When I got home today I decided to document what has been floating around in my head since childhood. The diagrams in this post represent how I see time in my own minds eye.
A new day: Someday
Have you ever wondered where the days of the week got their name? It's an interesting bit of history. I've often fantasized about creating a new day to add to the calendar.
It would fit in between Sunday and Monday and I'd call it Someday. Basically forever creating a three day weekend and serving the purpose of playing catch up on all those things you never have time to do or finish. You know what I mean. How many times have you heard someone say:
"I'll get to that someday."
Well now they could, literally.
Creating a bigger step.
I know someone will read this post, neglect to discern the sarcasm and humor and feel obligated to post a comment that this idea wouldn't work because of the lunar calendar or it would conflict with the time continuum. Regardless I welcome your feedback.
There are other aspects to this that I could expand upon and perhaps I'll get to that Someday? We'll see. ;-P
15 comments:
You're a strange bird my friend. :)
I don't know if it's a scary thing or a cool one that I get what you're saying. In fact I view my week and months in a similar way but the work part being dark and the fun parts being like a sunrise.
Bizarre... but I really do mean that as a compliment. It was fascinating!
This Post should be taken as a prelude to the upcoming TV Series called Quantum Von.
Really loved your view on the time/space continuum. Great Stuff! Weird, but great all the same!
Your wife is very insightful.
I can relate to what you've said. And, I'm kind of relieved. Even though I am unable to articulate it like you did, I see maps in my head with west facing "up," like when I'm navigating around my own city. Also, I've always been good at math and when I'm adding numbers I "see" them in my head, but not in the way you'd write them when you're adding them up.
So, I don't think it's weird at all!
Von,
You really are amazing. What I find very interesting is that I have had similar thoughts and always wondered how to visualize them, but never could. I always saw the end of Dec. and beginning of Jan. as somehow curved - like rounding a corner into a new year. The same with May to mid June. Like a hard turn out of the school year into summer vacation. (I have children as well.) Strangely, the August to Sept. transition is more like a slant into the Fall - Winter straightaway. Jan. through May always appears in my minds eye as a much longer span than Aug. through December. The whole calendar making up some unusual ellipse. This may be my favorite post on your blog. It really struck me . . . great stuff. Thanks for sharing.
. . . and my wife has the same opinion of me.
Sorry for the long comment.
Believe it or not, I was able to follow your concept of time, but there is one thing that bothers me. If this was my idea, I would say that you should take a "right at Saturday" (I suppose it is my western up bringing and conforming to societies norms).
But I would like to make a suggestion regarding Someday. (and I'll use your standard of taking a left at Saturday) Wouldn't it make sense that someday should be to the right of Saturday and not to the left of Sunday. (But not to disrupt the the time continuum too much it might be a slight right at Friday). Only because someday would be closely related to "what if" but in the future tense because it could always be a possibility.
Loren,
Since we are speaking in hypotheticals I'd think a magical day like "Someday" would be transdimensional. It makes for easier discussion wedging it between Sunday and Monday but in actuality it's a floater. You insert it where ever because it's outside this continuum.
You exit this dimension and start Someday and the moment you return to this continuum is the same moment you return. This new reality only works once per person per week and you're automatically sent back after 24hrs in the Someday.
Time to go take my medication now.
Von,
I must disagree with your view on this topic. You see, I've always envisioned time as drops of water/liquid. Each day is a drop that mixes in with the last day and so on. As time, or rather ONE's time passes, you end up having a "lake" of sorts. All the days touch each other. All is fluid. Since each desicion you take on those days shape your life/timeline, they must be connected.
So I don't see weeks lined up in any way. All is mixed up. This is where lines like: "That seems like it happened yesterday" comes in. It feels that way. Maybe when a memory comes to mind, we navigate closer to that part of the lake. Hence it feels strangely close by.
We are all a bunch of weirdos.
I thought it would be cool to have a day in between Sunday and Monday called Funday, where no one works, everything is closed, you just go to the beach or park or sleep or whatever. Just a really unproductive day. Hmmmm, Funday...
Ha ha! So great. I have always visualized my days of the week and months too. Only my weekday has always been greyscale with the weekend being the darkest, both saturday AND sunday to the left and taking up the length of MTWTHF making a rectangle-like circle. The months, for me, go down like a ladder from january in a kind of pastel rainbow. I told a friend this a while ago and she promptly diagnosed me with asbergers syndrome. . . hmmmmm
Hey that's the day I'm always planning to work on my book. Now I can finally tell my wife to stop asking when I'm planning to work on it again.
I've always believed my lack of ambition had something to do with living in a world with a flawed concept of time. Thanks Mr. Wizard!
This is great. I have always visualized the months of the year as a blocky lopsided circle, almost like a clock. With January at the top left corner, May at the top right corner, September at the bottom right corner and November at the bottom left corner. If some one mentions a date or holiday to me, I always have a mental picture of the month in this visualization. No idea where I came up with this and the idea of creating a wall wipe erase calendar that represented that visualization has entered my mind.
Love your work on the freelance podcasts. I am not in the creative field but I have always loved looking at logos etc. Your work is great. Alright enough sucking up.
THANK GOD! I've always had a very similar way of thinking of the week in particular that I've never been able to explain well. Mine starts on Monday as well but goes right to Friday. Saturday then sits above Friday and Sunday to the left of Saturday. The next Monday then falls below Sunday and so on. So in my mind each week is like a loop, with the M-F portion below the weekend, then looping back into the week.
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