Time is Relative

One time, while watching insects fluttering about, I came up with a theory that time passed slower for tiny insects than for us gigantic humans. It explained why that fly that I was trying to swat could evade my every blow even though its brain is smaller than a sesame seed. To it, I was travelling in super-slow motion and thus was a cinch to avoid.

I never thought this applied to humans, the size differences between people would be too small to make a difference, but now I’m beginning to think differently. On Sunday, we went to Staples to find a backpack for B. Her new laptop didn’t fit in her old laptop bag and she needs *some* way to carry it during BlogHer. Staples had a good sale so off we went.

We entered the store and made a beeline for the backpack rack. Thirty seconds later, NHL was complaining left and right about how long it was taking us and how we were going so slow. I dragged him away to the side for a little discussion and then we continued shopping…. until he began complaining again 30 seconds later. This went on until we selected a backpack. The whole selection process took 10 minutes, tops, but NHL acted like we took 3 hours.

I can’t help but think back to the time I spent shopping with my father when I was younger. He would be looking for a new shirt or suit and would take hours upon hours to pick the ones he wanted. At least, it seemed like hours upon hours. Maybe it just seemed like that to my young mind and he really was done shopping in 30 minutes or less.

Perhaps my old theory has some validity after all. Maybe time goes slower when you are younger and speeds up as you age. The years do seem to fly by more quickly now. Next week, I’ll be turning 35 and, in many ways, it seems like I just left my twenties. Is time really speeding along for me while it drags along at a snail’s pace for NHL? Or perhaps all forms of shopping (except for toy shopping, of course) are so inheriting boring to young boys that time grinds nearly to a halt.