Chronology. Chronometer. Chronic. Chronicle. Chronograph. Chronoscope. Chrono is alive and well in the Modern English Language. Chrono is the old god of time, Chronos or Kronos. And Time, as a word, goes back to Early Middle English…..and one of the defining characteristics of time is “measured intervals.”
Time can be measured in any number of units and the intervals can be assigned arbitrarily or by some logic (i.e., Logos)…. both linearly, and cyclicly. Cycles of time, repeated rounds of measured intervals, is best represented by the change in seasons. Although time might appear to be linear, just as empty space appears to be solid, we really measure time in cycles. A year is a cycle….A decade is a cycle, as is a century, an age, a millenium…..A minute is a cycle, an hour is a cycle….time goes round and round in cycles. Time recycles.
And cycle, as one might see, is kin to circle; so, time is a circle – except for the linear perception of time which makes the circle into a spiral – 22 is further along the linear path than 21, even though, after one year, you’ve returned to the very same season, in the very same month, on the very same date…. one year later - you have passed through 4 seasons worth, 12 months worth, of personal experience – and that makes all the difference. It may be the same season, the same month, the same place, but it’s not the same….it’s a year later.
It appears we are moving towards a future, away from a past……movement through measured intervals of days, weeks, months, years, decades…, in a linear fashion…which, though actually cyclical, can be viewed more as a spiral motion, round and round in circles and, at the same time, moving along what appears to be a linear path – able to look back down at where we were, and project up front where we hope to be…..
