How to grasp time using the wisdom of Dolly Parton (Auto generated transcript, filled with mistakes, but you get the gist)

[00:00:00]

I'm going to start today with a quote from Anthony Doerr who is the author of the brilliant. Novel "All The Light We Cannot See."

 And the quote goes like this. 

Time is a slippery thing. Lose hold of it once. And then string might sail out of your hands forever. 

I am haunted by this image of time slipping out of our grasp. And our efforts to catch it. Once and for all. I mean, we grapple with time at the granular level, and then we are dismayed that we can't figure out what happened to it. 

over the next couple of episodes. We are going to start to get a grasp on time. By zooming out a little to maybe reframe time on the [00:01:00] conceptual level. I know it gets a little heady it's heady for me to just go with me because the idea is. 

That if we can. Continue to shift our perspective on time. 

Then maybe we won't have to fight it so much. 

But here's the thing. It turns out. That time as a concept is just as elusive. As time management in practice. You know, when you were in seventh grade. You're writing a thesis paper. Do they still do that in seventh grade? You'd often start with the definition. Well, I'm going to do that. So Miriam Webster dictionary defines time as number one, a. 

The measured or measurable period. During which an action process or condition exists or continues. Colon. [00:02:00] Duration. 

And definition one B. A non spatial continuum that is measured in terms of events. Which succeed, one another. From past, through present. To future. 

 Time. As a measurable period. Makes sense. That's why we have clocks. That's why we have 50 minute therapy sessions. But what exactly are we measuring? 

I mean on a personal level. Most of us can agree that time is something we don't have enough of. It's a container. And a pressure. It feels completely finite, except when we are in the throws of parenting toddlers or knitting a sweater. But then it seems interminable, unending. 

And also precious and gentle and fleeting. 

The days are long, but the weeks are short. They say, And so [00:03:00] we are stuck in a battle with time to harness it. And to escape it. To use it well. 

And I promise you that over the next few months, I'm going to help you use time. Well, I'm going to share strategies with you. That will help you make the most of your time. But first, I think it's worth the effort to dig a little into physics. 

But this is problematic. And it's problematic for a couple of reasons. The first is. That I'm not a physicist. And problem number two is. I promised to keep these solo episodes under 15 minutes long. And this is going to take way longer than 15 minutes for me to wrap my head around. 

So, what you're getting over the next couple of episodes is the physics of time. As I understand it. 

And I didn't make this stuff up out of thin air. My path to [00:04:00] understanding has been a little Rocky. So I actually want to tell you a little bit about that . So first I have been obsessed with time since forever ago. I mean long ago, I fell in love with a boy who would gaze into my eyes and promise to build me a time machine. And there was nothing hotter. So that tells you something. 

Jeff. And I also early in our relationship used to read passages of Einstein's dreams to each other. 

In the wee hours of the morning. So it is safe to say that the way to my heart. Is give it time. 

And then of course there's a day-to-day relationship with time and efficiency and productivity and God forbid aging, and that's all sort of the background to something that has been rising in my consciousness, which is. [00:05:00] Quantum. Physics the quantum understanding of time. 

So, I don't know about you. I don't know if it's just my algorithm, but I have been seeing a lot at Instagram wooing and Reddit action and inbox spamming about this thing called quantum jumping. As in how to quantum jump your way to love or money or health or Nirvana. And my first response, and I apologize to my quantum loving Wu sisters and brothers out there, but my first response was. 

Well, that's a load of trash. 

But then I felt bad about 

And I figured. That rather than roll my eyes and write their ideas off completely, it might be worth it to understand what they're selling. So last spring. I posted a [00:06:00] message on Facebook. Asking who could explain quantum physics to me. 

And I got more DMS. And responses about that one post then probably all the other posts I have made combined in the last year. 

I mean, my people are into the quantum and I was missing out. 

So I went where any self-respecting student would go. To get a no-frills course on physics. MIT. I signed up to take an online course called quantum physics one. And I got my notebook out. And I put my headphones on and I watched the first lecture and I failed. 

I'm kidding. I didn't really fail because, well, it really, wasn't a graded thing. It's just a widely available MIT OpenCourseWare lecture [00:07:00] package, which by the way is amazing. It's amazing that you can take a class from MIT for free. If you can, you know, do the math, which I could not do the math. 

Um, but I'm linking it in the show notes. 

 Anyway, after day one, I had to do math and I can't do math. So I had to figure out a different plan to learn a little more about quantum physics Before I could learn about quantum physics. I needed to learn. About time. 

Just. Time. So I. Decided. That it might be worthwhile to turn to some more basic explanations of why the universe and the two people who are not only generally respected scientists. R Sean Carroll and American theoretical [00:08:00] physicist and philosopher who specializes in quantum mechanics, gravity. 

And cosmology. 

Sean Carroll, who also has the same name as a colleague of my husband's, who was also a scientist. This Sean Carroll, Sean M. Carroll was a research professor at Caltech, and recently moved closer to our neck of the woods to Johns Hopkins. And he has written the ambitious and delicious. Ingestible books. 

With titles, like the big picture on origins of life, meaning and the universe itself. And the biggest ideas in the universe space, time and motion. Which just came out last month, by the way. So ambitious. Yes. And also I am quite fond of the work of Carlo Ravelli, who is an Italian theoretical physicist and writer, who, in addition to being a really compelling speaker, 

Wrote page Turners like [00:09:00] seven brief lessons on physics. Reality is not what it seems. The journey to quantum gravity. And my personal favorite. There are places in the world where rules are less important than kindness. 

Now I mentioned. That these two scientists are generally respected. Am I saying that. Is not a criticism of their work, but it's more a recognition. From an admittedly smitten vantage point, the science community is. By its very nature, skeptical and tempered by discernment. 

Well also operating on the grace. That in accordance with the natural laws of the universe. We have evolving sets of data and we can't fault ourselves for using the data set we had at point a, just because we have a different data set that we use now. I 

There's one practical thing that we can [00:10:00] carry with us this week. Let's be more like a scientist. Let's be more discerning and more merciful with each other. We're all just getting through life with a data set. We have. =And because we are all freaking human, we are working within our mortal limits of time, perspective, and capacity. 

And my capacity for understanding big ideas is pretty low. 

I was telling my friend. Who was also a scientist. My friend, Kelsey, you will hear from her again because I'm going to get her on this podcast one way or another. I really struggle. To do something as simple as look at a starry sky. I mean, people love a story sky, right? I mean, I love It consistently brings me a deep sense of all. 

But it is also completely and utterly overwhelming to my meager brain. The [00:11:00] vastness of it, the complexity The beauty in the words of buzz light year to infinity and beyond, I can only take for so long. 

And that's how I feel about time. 

 All to say. 

That what I'm going to tell you if the next couple of episodes is what I've gleaned specifically from the works of these two men, Sean Carroll. And Carla Ravelli. 

Because they make the fundamental ideas of physics accessible and available to dreamers like you and me and it is scary. And probably extremely problematic for me to attempt this. But as Dolly Parton says, you never do a whole lot, unless you're brave enough to try. 

So next week, I will walk with you down the path charted by great scientists so that we can attempt to forge a new relationship with time. And for now. Just [00:12:00] take note. How slippery is time for you. And when do you feel like you have time firmly in your grasp? 

Stay curious. Y'all.