Sira-Sira store: Measuring time olementoftime,

Ober Khok

TIME is often spoken of as an element, such as “the element of time is vital when transacting business” or “the element of time is crucial when responding to emergencies.”

Time is mysterious. We neither see shadow nor substance of it, yet we can verify its existence through what it does to us.


This is what makes a schoolboy so confused he curses anything to do with grade school math (and later in life, college physics).

We know time exists because night turns into morning, babies grow into men, and dark hair eventually becomes white — all through the passing of what we call time.

Time preoccupies us so much we follow it with almanacs, wristwatches and calendars. However, we can’t touch it and we can’t dissect it like a frog. What’s more, even when the clock is busted, time goes on. Nothing can stop it.

This unseen universal element hooks up with change. As long as there is time, change will follow. Rainy days are followed by sunny ones and in western countries, winter melts into spring and spring blooms into summer and summer fades into fall.

Even outer space is aware of time. The moon circles around the earth and earth circles around the sun — all keeping time with a galactic melody that is beyond human perception.

Indeed, the concept of time is closely knitted to what we call space, the great universe that man wants to explore.

Brilliant minds have studied time. Physicist Albert Einstein did so with his theory of relativity, which one schoolboy used to think had to do with relatives who unexpectedly dropped by the house near lunchtime.

Even after Einstein explains that the universe is expanding, the schoolboy still does not understand time although he feels it when he is late for school and the teacher scolds him, and motions him to stand in the corner of the classroom, and to face to the wall.

One good thing about time, scientists say, is that it can be measured by motion. We can prove its existence through motion.

The humble kitchen has evidences of time because a lot of motion happens there. But even when presented with these explanations, the schoolboy still does not understand why there’s a fuss over time.

One morning, his mother takes out a couple of eggs from the egg tray to make the breakfast omelette.

She beats the eggs, cooks it and presents it on a serving dish.

Those are four motions and one change: The liquid eggs have solidified into something pleasing to the palate.

Her tiny trip from the refrigerator where she stores the eggs and her tiny journey to the dining table all prove that time has gone by. But who really cares about the passing of a mundane day in a domestic kitchen?

Only a schoolboy can measure that passing by the width of his smile. He tells his mother, “You’re the best omelette maker, nanay.”

His concept of time is not bound by clocks or theories but is based on what his stomach tells him and how fast the hunger can be quelled.

The boy’s motion, a kiss on his mother’s cheek, causes change in his mother’s weary heart. Her joy makes the heat in the kitchen worth all the theories about time and the expanding universe.