49. The extended time of childhood You can not go, as Proust, in search of lost time. But we can dream of that that have benefited from extended time during their childhood, those born until the 60s of last century. After it is no longer possible because modern times have catapulted our world means that they did take the time, so as to put the anxiety to keep him behind. What happened? Because everyone has the impression that the weeks, months, years, fly?
When I think of my childhood, emerges immediately to my mind an image of infinite serenity, a peaceful pulled by two cows, the gig is carrying me, with all its cargo, toward home. I'm sitting on a huge pile of grass that intoxicates my nostrils with its thousands of odors. There is no hurry, ruminants and know the way through it, slowly. It 's a beautiful May day, sitting comfortably, enjoying the sunshine and the rhythmic steps of the beasts rocks me and leaves me free to let my mind wander.
This is my time is stretched, I regret that when, now, too many commitments overlap.
A time that seems light years away from now. At that time we lived in symbiosis with the cycles of nature and, because they always went on foot or at most bicycle, there could be no hurry.
tells Mrs. Armentini (the dean of this blog) that even when he was young (1940), there were no clocks in his house. So it was adjusted for the various activities of the day only by the light of day and the bells, in villages, they played at six o'clock, at noon, the evening call to the faithful but, in fact, punctuated a day of farm work: work start, lunch break, after work, a sound that was expanding in rural areas at a distance of kilometers.
Another important factor to regulate the time, was the sun. Armentini says, to turn the kelp for lunch, just look where the shadow reached the second step of his staircase. In the rural world was all a matter of observation, through this fact, and the experience gained, the farmer knew how to bring in nature: tradition and know-how handed down through generations.
European man has lived through a time marked mainly by the bells, then suddenly over fifty years, which seem to me just because I lived them all, has raised the mighty wind of modernity that swept away the "old days" and he had to start Timing it thousandths of seconds. Crazy.
Among the factors disturbing or regenerating (depending on your point of view) that have changed this time, there is certainly electricity. Then the means of transport such as the media and means of entertainment, leading the youth of today, for example, to lose, on average, an hour of sleep a night to enjoy it.
As for the time lost in transport, there is one dedicated to the children, who are not longer allowed to move independently even in the 200 meters around the house. First, no one dreamed of bringing the children to school and we were alone, even at great distances. I remember that even kindergarten, I had to reach a half-hour walk, I sent you (reluctantly) alone. For sport, there were areas where the children were called upon for help according to their abilities. For leisure, the country was their gym: they met with their friends and play, play, until the evening, called home only by hunger. While their parents had for their jobs in an area not exceeding 20 km. Also, and this is a very important point with respect the dangers of today, no child had money in his pocket to spend freely, for which the adolescent is not at risk of alcohol nor drugs that did not exist, just as adults attended the bar to play cards with friends.
In short, if you look at the clock because you have to run to bring the kids to school, running the office, run to the store, run away to prepare dinner, run to take their children in the gym, running to the hairdresser, accountant escape, escape to the post office, run a. ....... the time you miss, inevitably !
Barbara Bertolini
And your time is stretched as it was?
