Time

Time's funny stuff. When you're anticipating a happy event, it always seems to take forever to arrive. Christmas, to a little kid, is never going to come. I guarantee that same kid's parents are thinking, "Christmas? Again? Already??!"

But when it's something serious, it becomes a 'deadline'. Who thought of that word, anyway? Tax deadline. Those two words are enough to keep the most stalwart of us awake at night. And deadlines creep up on us far too quickly, and no amount of preparation can help us feel confident when the deadline arrives. I think it's the word.

Dead. Line.

In Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, 'deadline' is defined as "a line drawn within or around a prison that a prisoner passes at the risk of being shot." Cross the line, bang, you're dead.

In the every day world, we use the term cavalierly as a way of describing a finite time frame. "I have to turn in this report by the five o'clock deadline, or there will be Hell to pay." But really, what's the worst thing that can happen? You'll get sacked? I seriously don't think your boss will come into your cubicle and shoot you in the face.

Still, the concept of time is very relative, and its definition changes throughout our lives. To a ten-year-old child, five years is an eternity; of course it is. It's half of her whole life. But that same person at forty will view five years as a very small amount of time indeed. Now it's only an eighth of her life. And ten years after that, it's only a tenth. By the same token, a single day can feel endless, but a year goes by just like that.

Deadline.

I really don't think I like that word.