Internal Climate Change

The Persistence of Memory By Salvador Dali. Image taken from About.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20132344

I went down to the school to teach an art class on Salvador Dali to a group of 3rd graders.  Of course, I showed them his well known painting with the melting clocks.  To us old folks, the idea of time slipping away is something of which we are very cognizant.  But I couldn’t help but wonder what a group of eight year olds would make of the idea of time slowly running out.

“Remember when school first started?” I asked them.  “Bringing in your supplies, meeting your teacher, learning who you were going to sit by. Does that seem like a long time ago?”  Heads nodded and I saw their eyes drift as they looked back to the start of they year.

One little girl in the back cocked her head to the side and commented, “Yeah, but it also seems like just yesterday.”  More nods of agreement floated across the room.

“That’s so weird,” said a little boy in front, “it’s like long ago but also just over.  I think I get the clocks.”  That crazy sense of the past being right there next to you is present even when young I guess.  The end of Kindergarten sits snuggled up right next to the end of 6th grade in my mind.  My girls are equally tiny little things and then almost grown women.  And trying to wrap my head around how long it has been and how quickly it has flown is almost impossible.

As the countdown to summer draws to a rapid close, I can’t help but wonder where did the elementary years go?  How are we suddenly almost finished with middle school?  I’m worried that my clocks are melting at an alarming rate.  Climate change on an internal scale?  Is that a thing?  Lets hope not…..