Summary:
The relativity of the rates at which human beings perceive the world around them in different situations has much to do with their mindset at the time. Bad events seem to take longer, while good times seem to pass quickly.
Andrew Abrahams
Biological relativity of the minds perception of time
The human mind compares every moment and event to a predetermined basic rate at which any given mind believes that moment or event should have transpired, immediately deciding weather or not time seemed to have been passing slowly or quickly. Resultantly, every moment or event, in terms of time, is relative to any other moment or event and will seem to have passed quickly or slowly depending on the event it is related to. During moments of high tension and stress time will seem to be passing relatively faster than if the mind was under no strain since during these periods the metabolic rate is higher. The mind adapts to different scenarios by either increasing or decreasing the metabolism in order to perceive events and in doing so react to them more quickly. However, it does so while maintaining the memory of previous events and ambient metabolic rate and so, judges all new input with relativity to the old. The following is a wonderful illustration of a mind comparing perceived time to a standardized ambient perception of time in a wide range of possible metabolic rates. The following is also based on a true story, only the times, locations, persons involved and actual events have been altered.
Lines of smoke danced and twirled as they rose from a Paul Mal cigarette, which was idly glowing in an ashtray surrounded by dozens of its lifeless clones. The ashtray belonged to a 1991 Crown Victoria, one of those box-featured cars with sharp extruded headlights and rust around the fenders. The automobile itself belonged to detective Jack Reins of the West Plains police department. Together they fit in well with their downtrodden, overdeveloped, wrong-side-of-town surroundings. Reins didn't generally do field work since in truth, as a detective, that really isn't his job, but this particular job wasn't exactly something Jack could sit on the sidelines and wait out as enforcement officials danced around it with fines and overnight prison sentences. This particular case hit a bit closer to home, as the illegal arms dealer he was stalking was a man directly responsible for the death of his brother. Reins' brother Brian (rest his soul) was mayor during his last days and was working on granting local law enforcement (including the station by which jack was employed) much needed funds to reduce local crime. The man hunted by Jack, Carl Pryce was one of three men who gunned Brian Reins down in his car at a red light the previous august. Brian's picture was on the front page of four local newspapers the next day.
Sitting on torn leather Jack took the last drag off his filter-less Paul Mal before crushing it out with the painful memories and sitting back, letting his felt hat fall over his eyes. Since that day in August time didn't mean much to Jack, it's been dragging its feet and changes day to night around him but does nothing more. When I mind undergoes so much emotion and never recovers, time and the progression of life for all intensive purposes stop at that event or moment until it is permitted to continue by bringing conclusion to the event. Jack was such a case; his perception of time with regard to this event was incredibly slow relative to other similar cases involving other families and other victims for which time passed as normally as it would with any other day job. Yet this time things where different, relative to other points in his life, time had nearly stopped, giving him an eternity to resolve one all-encompassing matter.
It was 1:32 a.m. on Aril 30th when Jack was wrenched from his thoughts by the approach of another vehicle. Without the glow of his extinguished cigarette Jacks vehicle would appear vacant, from the distance at which these newcomers might view it. The vehicle was a Lexus, and a fairly new one at that, a curious vehicle given the time and neighborhood. The cars chrome rims slid to a stop at the end of the driveway thought to belong to price. For a moment, for Rein, time went from crawling to a dead halt as these two objects of suspicion collided. Suddenly, things where moving again, and relatively fast compared to the near stasis in which Jack had been residing for the past seven months and at first Jack had no idea what to do with the new vitality as he had been without it for so long. However, no a moment later Jacks situation became a blinding reality and accordingly every hurried action became deliberate.
Jack Rein motioned to a van down the street, to the chief sitting in the front seat, remembering the names and faces of the officers in the back waiting to spring to his aid at a moments notice. The men in the van where Jacks family, men he had know all his adult life and some quite literally since diapers. The chief especially, he was a cigar type with a certain subtlety and compassion to him that closely resembled that of Jacks father, and with his brother being the last of Jacks family to pass away those men where all he had.
With a motion of confidence from the chief Jack turned his concentration to sliding .357 magnum rounds into the cylinders of a short barrel blued revolver. His hands shook slightly as anticipation grew and time seemed to be going faster, almost frighteningly, uncontrollable fast. As soon as the gun was loaded and all the stimulus and implication it entailed where gone Jacks perception slowed to a reasonable deliberate pace once more. No longer active Jacks concentration returned to the house just as the porch light flipped on and the door inched open. A face that Jack could not perceive peered out and swiftly drew back in closing the door as soon as the head cleared. Jack shot one last glance toward the van before returning his concentration to the door. Time had now returned to its frozen state as Jacks mind raced and breathe left him, waiting for the door to open and this chapter of his life to finally end. After a minute or so the door opened once more and a man began to span the gap between the house and the Lexus. He was sporting a bathrobe and a heavy paper bag. The Lexus accordingly produced two men, one Rein immediately recognized as the mayor but the second was still a mystery. By the time the two men got to the other side of the vehicle to greet the man, jack recognized him and was filled with rage, it was Pryce.
Jack opened the door of his vehicle taking one last notice of a crumpled warrant on his passenger seat amid the fast food as he produced the .357 from his trench coat and began to plot out his actions. Before Jack could fire he was blinded by a bright flash (not specifically that of a gun) and felt warmth as every muscle tensed with rage and finally returned to normal as Rein felt a cold wet breeze on his back. As soon as this episode was over Jack took note if the three had noticed or not and they hadn't. Dismissing the episode as fight or flight instinct he drew a bead on Pryce and fired. The other two men where picked off by the van and as soon as the smoke cleared Jack strode over to the scene to view the corpses. As Jack, the chief and all the other men stood around the three bodies jack extended a hand to the chief who was likely as glad it was all over as Rein since now the chief would have his best detective back. Right then vision faded and reality shifted.
Jack opened his eyes, a curious action, as they seemed to have already bee open. Time was relatively calm now; Jack was not empowered by adrenaline any longer. He was in a hospital bed, something he found quite odd since three seconds ago he was standing over the symbol of his vengeance in the middle of the night. The window was pouring in sunshine and a television was on at low volume, tuned to the local news. According to the lower left hand corner of the screen it was 3:47 p.m. on May the 2nd and there was a report on displaying his face. It listed victims also, all men from the station, the men he had just seen gun down two felons at 1:38 April 30th. Just then as time had taken its leave and left him in dismal grief alone in the sterile room Jack Rein remembered the episode and what had really happened after it. Immediately following Rein put two and one together and realized why the mayor would be accepting a large, heavy brown bag from a killer. There where three men that night and he had killed none of them.
The End.
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