Beyond the Margin

By Joe Spear

Summer(time) in a bottle

As summer arrives, it seems a mad rush ensues to get all those fun summer things done in the short time we have. Fall is “just around the corner,” we say.

Make a list. Coordinate schedules. Get the food by noon and the beer by 3, and then be ready to entertain for hours. Don’t forget to cut the grass first.

By the time it’s done, we need a break from a hectic summer involving relaxing activities like fishing, swimming, boating, backyard barbecues, a night at the concert and a day at the fair.

It’s summer and time is short. So we tell ourselves.

And then by the Fourth of July we’re saying: “Summer’s half over.” Enter frowny carnival clown face.

Of course, this is nowhere near reality if we’re talking about the season of summer.

Consider summer starting June 20 and fall starting Sept. 22. That gives us 14 weeks or so of summer. July 4 would be the third week of summer, so about a fourth of the summer is gone by July 4. Half would be a slight exaggeration. I feel better already.

Numerous articles by various smart people writing in Psychology Today note the importance of time and the impact it can have on our mental health and stress levels.

A few headlines: “Time speeds up in flow states on video games.” A fascinating article with a bit of advice if you think your kids play too many video games:

“Flow during video gaming is an optimal mental state characterized by deep absorption during challenging tasks.”

And: “In healthy individuals flow states induced during a video game increase subjective wellbeing and the felt passage of time.”

Importantly: “Flow states induce a loss of sense of self and time and can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.”

Another scintillating piece in PT posits: “Color affects our subjective well-being and sense of time.”

Red and yellows create nervousness and tension while blues and greens create a sense of calm. That explains loud, souped-up red pickup trucks and yellow Camaros and, of course, the people who drive them.

Writer Mark Wittman, Ph.D., indeed, says: “The Arousal Theory of Color posits that longer wavelengths, such as red and yellow, are perceived as more activating, whereas colors of shorter wavelengths, such as green and blue, are experienced as more relaxing.”

Another Psychology Today blogger argues routine creates an appearance of time going faster, so as kids grow up with lots of routine, the parents find themselves saying to each other at grad parties: “Where has the time gone?”

And then there’s this pandemic-related piece:

Three studies of time showed 40% of people thought time passed more slowly during the pandemic and boredom was on the rise as well. Seems obvious. And reports of people driving over 100 mph to reduce boredom make a little more sense.

But Wittman also says boredom can be selfinflicted and only our ability to “self-regulate” can save us. In the words of Wittman: “To be bored means to be bored with myself. I cannot stand the presence of myself at this moment; I would prefer to be distracted from myself.”

Whether we’re good at self-regulating or not, time is a force to be reckoned with.

Songwriters have long used time as a way to relate to our shared experiences that happen in the summer.

Bruce Springsteen has a knack for celebrating time and lamenting time lost.

From “Racing in the Street”: “The summer’s here and the time is right to go racing in the street.”

From “Born to Run”: “In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American Dream. At night we drive through mansions of glory in suicide machines.”

Time stands as one of those concepts we can’t get our minds around. How can the light of a star that burned out thousands of years ago just be reaching us now? How does Santa make it around the world in just one night?

Ultimately, it seems time is mind over matter. It’s better to make time count than to count time. The irises may go from bud to bloom in a day and be done in a few weeks, but their purplish hue soothes and their light will be seen thousands of years from now in a faraway place.

Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear.