Time longer than rope

Yesterday it snowed here, only the second snowfall of the year in this area. Given how hilly it is here, it was not a day to take the car out, so I walked a lot and it was great to be out crunching in the snow for a change. As I walked, I also mused on the passage of time and how we view it, as well as the thought of the Cayman saying: “Time longer than rope”

When I moved to Cayman in 1989 one of the staples of life was to pick up the daily (well, Monday to Friday, no issues on the weekend) newspaper, the Caymanian Compass (and, for the Cayman readers, a slightly sad note that the title of this publication has now been watered down to the Cayman Compass).

On the inside front page of “the Compass” was the weather forecast, which, almost every day, simply said: “No Significant Features”, as the weather varied narrowly from hot to hotter, from mostly to blisteringly sunny. With such predictable tropical weather, as well as with daylight hours only varying from 11 hours in mid-winter to 13 in mid-summer, seasons become a bit of an afterthought, particularly given the modern tendency to live and work and drive in air conditioning.

The change in seasons and weather when I moved over to London a few years ago initially shocked and challenged me my first winter, less the cold than the really short daylight hours. However, now in my fourth winter here, I have…