Where’d All the Time Go?
A reflection on time, based on late night thoughts and Dr. Dog’s titular song.
“Where’d All the Time Go?” other than it’s the title of a 2010 release song by Philly-based rock band, Dr. Dog by the same name, it is a rather big question that made me wander late at night and let my thoughts races and clashes at the same time. As this hypnotic looping arpeggio-heavy opening sequence of the song started, my mind does the same thing, subconsciously it lead me to a sequence of my life that pushed me to this night of wishful thinking and the “what-ifs?” in my life. This song started with a question and quite a take on the concept of time.
Where’d all the time go?
It’s starting to fly
See how the hands go
Waving goodbye
Can’t believe that the first four lines of this song, made you nostalgic and think about lost times and the things that you can’t take back, at first i thought maybe i’m still too young and less experienced to have felt this way, i just turned 21 last December, but trust me living life in your twenties amidst this global pandemic and knowing that it limits your potential and social life, is not an easy thought to sleep into. It’s the fears really that knocked the sense into you, and on top of it you mostly spend your time at home, collecting those fears and planting it on your head. I feared that i will finish no songs that me and my band made, feared that i still feel this alone years in time, and then it gets worse, the song hits me with one of the hardest line midway through the guitar filled chorus.
She’s on the go, way too fast and way too slow
Dr. Dog is famous for putting a good amount of varying interpretations of meaning into their songs, safe to assume that in this song they have done the same, there are many good interpretations of this song lyrics, a particular one that i like is a contributor on the music site Genius, pointed out that the “she” on the song is just an embodiment of time itself, for me- they cleverly narrated it to be this song about a “girl/time” who always scared of the ending of her, and on the contrary belief the singer or the “boy” who is just in love with her and made the most of his time with her, falling in love with her perspective of time. There are also many interpretations that felt very personal to the song writers that involved death because in this song lyrics there are mentions of “funeral homes” or “flowers for the sick and dead”, and that I think it’s the beauty of this song where there are so many interpretations of time that felt personal for whoever listened to it.
For me, I’m grateful that Spotify put this on my recommended song list because after quite a listen, this single song changed my entire perspective of time. As i said, the line “way too fast and way too slow” hits me the most, I instantly, associated it with my perspective of time (prior to knowing what’s coming for me), and how i think in this life (at least for me), time goes around way too fast when you’re favourite person in the world changed and become a stranger in a heartbeat, and how people around me are graduating or currently an intern on a major company or establishing successful businesses while i’m here still thinking i’ve never done anything worthy in my life, that i think it’s a little unfair because time goes in slow motion and way too slow for changing habits that you know are bad for you or letting go of a painful past and feeling left out in life.
Because, the truth is it is easier to go hard on yourself and felt lesser of one-self knowing that time moves really fast for those who achieved their goals and the people who walked away from your life, and it moves so slowly and even stagnant for you. It’s easier to compare your failures to the person who had their own timeline established. And that leads me to a mind changing discovery , that all this time I’ve been living life by punishing myself for my inability to change without putting any effort to change anything at all, I’ve been living my life comparing my life achievements to others that I felt was more successful than me without even knowing what did they do to get into that position.
So, to answer Dr.Dog’s question “Where’d All The Time Go?”, I’ll try to answer it with a famous saying about time;
Time and tide wait for no one. -Geoffrey Chaucer
Or on a simpler term ,“Time waits for no one”. Which i think it’s only half true because time is always there beside you, time waits for you if you try to put on some efforts to change, time waits for you if you have clear goals and put in trust on your own ability to make a change , but time does not wait for you if you let your fears (or in my case the late night fears.) Get the best of you, and you are not doing anything about it. And always and i mean always, trust your own pace and your own timeline, and don’t be blindsided by others, because they have their own sense of time.
The only one who knows what you’re capable of and what to do with your own sense of time (your past, present and the future) is yourself, not Dr.Dog because they have their own time and live shows to look forward to.
