The years get longer

....an expansion on comments by Pam and Ralph on Facebook.

My elementary school was Hawthorn Ave. School on the corner of Clinton and Hawthorn in Newark, NJ...a typical city school that hulked up to the sidewalk on the three sides that didn't have the playground. I can remember the last day of school ritual.....you took out all your books, and opened to the faceplate where you had printed your name in the name stamp place. There were about 8 lines there for subsequent users of that book in each year. And per teacher's instructions, you crossed out your name. It seemed like an important event. And then "no more teachers, no more books..." Next year the ritual happened again.....it seemed like such a long time later. And I noticed this difference in a year's length at High School age. As Ralph pointed out a year to an 8 yr old is 1/8 a lifetime. A year to a 15 year old is much less. And each year it progresses. Do the math. It seemed, Saturday night, like last Halloween was just a short time ago.

Of course the countervailing phenomenon is the increasing rate of forgetfulness. When you forget some of what has happened, it seems to leave time-blanks of indeterminate length, that lengthen the perception of the year. Everything in balance!

As far as work and aging, I find the ability to work smarter, and more efficiently leaves me on net more efficient with less time expended than 20 years ago. If you add in the "wiser," then you're way ahead. I'm thankful for getting older. Think of the alternative!