Fractals fascinate me. This one is reminiscent of an old world map… but on some distant planet where the sea forms geometric plates that continually shift and reconfigure according to this planets three moons and the land spews forth in continual eruptive engagement.

It’s in the eye of the beholder. The middle form might be a river enraged and snaking through carefully groomed farm land. But not today…

I wonder… if I was on an unexplored planet with two suns and three moons, would I still have a concept of time? Doubt it. I think we can all agree that time would return to being just a measurement.

Back here on Earth, the sun comes up…the sun sets. Spring follows winter. Summer follows spring. We understand these physical rhythms which we share intimately with Nature but regard them as a time construct. Time has become a constant in this physical relationship.

In our minds these natural rhythms have become linear and have progression. We follow a calendar of days, weeks , months, years…down to the second. Measurement in many ways has become the working structure of the way we process information.

Perceptually we’ve evolved (another linear term) to view the present by relatively going forwards and/or backwards in time, qualifying our place in time by our past experience or future desire. Time takes on continued perceptual importance.

Consider comments like, “We had so much fun, I lost track of time.” and “She’s very needy. She takes up a lot of my time.” and “I’m giving the relationship some time.”  Time now is perceptually intrinsic in human relationship.

But is it really? Do we literally measure our responses in a situation. If understanding comes in waves of insight, and compassion, gratitude and love are states of being rather than applied procedure, can there be measure in relationship?