Time Does Not Fly

Because of gravity the earth is in orbit around the sun. So are other planets and extra-terrestrial bodies. The earth is not a flying object. Saying something is flying implies it has moved from a resting place and will probably land somewhere. Space is neither land nor sea. There is nowhere to land on space. Space is space. If you’re at a certain distance from the earth, moving at a velocity a little below the earth’s escape velocity, you’ll end up in an orbit around the earth. You won’t be flying. You’ll be moving in an orbit.
That said, time does not fly. Time on the earth is a function of its movement in orbit around the sun. And because the earth and the sun do not fly, time does not also fly. Time is a constant. It’s as constant as clockwork. Newtonian mechanics says so and we all know Newtonian mechanics is wrong. Before you start quarreling with Newton and Galileo, let me also assure you that at the scope of the world you live in and see most of what they said about motion is true. So yes, time does not fly. The earth moves in orbit, so does time.
There are about 24 hours in everyday. It takes about 365 days for the earth to move round the sun. It never flies. Rather than fly to 365, some years extend to 366. I wouldn’t call that flying, would you? You have more time on your hands than you know. You just don’t realize how much time you have. And when you finally realize how long you’ve been waiting at a spot, you think time flew. Time didn’t fly. You were just dormant. Get a move on! Don't wait till the end of the year before you realize the year has started. And please don't wait till your forties to come out of folly. Start and start early. And when you start, keep going. Don't ever stop.
Imagine the tortoise and the hare. Both agreed to a race and all the pundits awarded the race to the hare, what with his mighty speed and swift movements. The hare took off and the tortoise trudged along. Some kilometers into the race the hare decided to take a nap. He figured it would take the tortoise ages to get there. While he was napping the tortoise dragged past. When the hare got to the finish line, he saw the tortoise at the finish line. Can you imagine his surprise? He thought it was a short nap and he'd surely wonder how time flew within the short period he took a nap.
The tortoise’s secret wasn’t his slowness, it was his steadiness. He kept right on moving, one step at a time. Time doesn’t fly. Time is probably slow, any time spent waiting will reveal as much. Time is steady. In your best interest, be as steady as the earth on its path round the sun. The hare finished poorly because he forgot the middle walk. He started strong, lost focus after the beginning then woke up at the end only to discover how time had flown!
Aren’t we usually like that? We start with a lot of resolve and then decide to take a quick nap along the way. A wise teacher wrote that short naps are the fastest route to long bouts of poverty. Quickies are indeed quickies. The only problem is that they tend to quicken negatives.
Sometimes I think the movement of time is actually an illusion. I think a better way to say it is that our perception of the movement of time is misleading. During times of inactivity time seems to drag along and we assume we have more time than we actually do. After a long while we wake up and discover how much time has flown! How enigmatic!
Let me end here lest I overstress the point and do it more injustice than it deserves. It took you about two minutes to read this short piece, did you know that? Time really does fly, doesn’t it?