On the day on the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals, and a day after Canada lost to Finland in the gold medal game at the IIHF World Championship, it is worth thinking about time. Yes, time, small amounts of time that often determine victory or defeat. Yes, that is half-seconds of time.
In fast moving games like ice hockey, a half second resonates in the minds of coaches, players and fans alike. For in a half second, one player is just ahead of getting to the puck before an opposing player, a goaltender is just anchored against the post before a blistering shot arrives, a check is delivered that catches an opponent off-balance, a shot is blocked for a breakaway, a line change is made properly to prevent an odd-man rush, a shot is sent towards an open net as time winds down, and more. While half-seconds may be long periods of time when speaking of light-speed, in sports they are really the quiet ingredients of a game that, after several periods, determine the result.
I have been thinking about this half-second “thing” for a long time. It is so obvious how many half-seconds add up to success of failure in many sporting activities beyond ice hockey……..skiing and bobsledding events, sprinting, speed-skating, horse racing, swinging for a home run, and many more. Half-seconds mean a lot in other parts of our lives, be they related to decisions made while driving a car, the chances you get on an elevator whose door is closing, blinking your eyes when pieces of dirt are blowing in the wind, being in complete harmony with your partnered singing performer, or catching a great photograph of a hawk catching prey.
Even those things we don’t see or feel are affected in major ways by those half-seconds. Just think of the millions of molecular motions, interactions and activation states that are far less than a half second in duration. The consequences in terms of health and disease of all of these miniscule moments in time is really a symphony of concurrent dynamics that render our state of being. A magnificently powerful, albeit occult system, one which operates really in all living things.
If these short thoughts, that have taken a little longer than a half second, move you to think about the use of time as short bits adding up to big bits, I will feel that exposing my reflection has been worthwhile…..even if for just a half second.