Holidays and the relativity of time

I am not predisposed to write a treatise on how much faster the Big Three holidays arrive each year as one ages, but in Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein determined that time is relative — in other words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference.

But, in my life, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Fourth of July have arrived faster and faster in each of the last 30 years. As a child up until high school, summers lasted a full three months or longer and each day had many more hours of sunlight than I have experienced in the last 20 years or more. This past summer went by in what seemed like less than 50 days.

We read about a star being so many light years away which is estimated to be 186,000 miles per second: unattainable because approaching light speed, mass becomes infinite as would energy to move it.

Few of you reading this will have reached my age of 80, nor served in the military.  But I leave you with this unforgettable vision: Life is like a giant roll of toilet paper. As you age it spins faster and faster.

If squares are days or months, and if I am in a stall and you knock next to me, I may reply, at my age, "I'm sorry ... I can't spare a square." 

Try to have a good sense of humor, enjoy your youth, and remember every day is special. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

JAMES RICHARD JOHNSON

Clark Fork