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To imagine that life existed, thousands of years before we did, is as humbling an idea as there can be. It is but a reflection of humanity, a realization that no matter how much we have developed & transformed & improved, at a point ahead of us lies our undoing, our end, and a new beginning for those who will step on our lands as the next civilization. We will be forgotten only to be discovered. We will be wiped off only to be mused upon. And that, as bleak as it sounds, is the circle of life we all must follow.

It’s a scale. From its tip to its end, time flows, linearly. What time might feel like is not something humans know or understand, so we made the scale linear, to make it easier for us. For you.

Wait! You’re too close to the scale. You can see the minutest divisions right now. Days and Hours. That won’t do. Back up a little. More. More. No! You are still close enough to see all 12 months of a year, too close-up. Back up more.

See years now? Go back.

Do you see centuries? Farther back.

A thousand years? Back.

A million years, divided into sections of 100 years each, laid out neatly on the scale, can you see that?

Stop.

Don’t move.

Stay there.

Watch.

You have time in front of your eyes; time enough to fit in numerous human generations; time in which tyrants ruled and nobles prevailed, millions died and billions were born; time that flew in one direction but followed its path like waves, circulating the same track again and again and again.

Now, Focus. Lay your eyes on the first 100 years. Forget what time it is. 1927 or 1000 or 0001. BC or AD or before calendars existed as a concept. It doesn’t matter. What is the earliest that humans remember anyway? The first time? The first happenings? Don’t dwell on it. Just focus on those 100 years. Civilizations rose and fell. Lifestyles came into and went out of style. People were suppressed and people revolted. Heroes were titled and Dictators feared.

Pause.

Take a breath.

Shift focus.

Observe another set of 100 years. What happened? Civilizations continued to rise and fall. Suppression. Rebellion. Tyrants. Nobility. Oh, a witchhunt! Wait, is that Jesus? Are those wild humans actually riding a mammoth?

Another 100 years. The pyramids. Another 100. The Internet. An old English village there. A dinosaur here. War on one end of the planet and another on the other end.

From one tip of the scale to another, time flows and you stand witness to life, emerging and alive, dead and snuffed out, miserable yet persistent, joyous yet unsatisfied. Celebratory. Weeping. Life. And Time.

Nothing changes. Truly. If you zoom in, 200 years let’s say, things will appear to change. 1000 years and that feeling will go away. In a way that’s both cliche and ineffable, people change sides, from good to evil and vice versa, right to wrong and then the other way, like a sine wave. High and low and always on the same path. Never deviating. Changing then un-changing then changing. Over a 100 to 200 years; over 300 to 500. 1000 and 10,000 and 1,00,000. Day after day, change is slow. Years after years. Change is shaping lives. Centuries after centuries and we are right back to the original behavior, albeit the context, the situation, the time changes.

Change is the only constant, they said. Did they knowingly avoid adding ‘illusion’ at the end?