It's about time - Bruce Levitan

So we enter a new decade
but what does it mean:
January 1st 2020?

It could be 1577886380 if I POSIX
or do you favour Julian’s 20001?

Muslims would say 5 of Djumada l-Ula 1441 AH
and the Hebrews: 4th of Tevet, 5780.

If you want to count the number of times
the earth has orbited the sun
then it’s the year 4,540,000,000
(give or take 5 million).

It’s all a bit arbitrary, really.

What year would God say this is?
Maybe S/He would count from the Big Bang?
13,787,000,000 (give or take 20 million).

But if God is immortal
and out of time altogether
what significance does a date have anyway?

So in this new decade,
instead of counting time,
maybe we should count blessings instead
and in so doing
try to pass some on…

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Bruce Levitan (born 1955) England (born in Kenya)

Notes:

• POSIX is a time clock based on UNIX that has its zero set at 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970, minus leap seconds
• The Julian calendar’s origin date is 1 January 4713 BC
• The Islamic or Hijri calendar’s origin date is the Islamic New Year of 622 AD/CE (which would have been 16 July in that year)
• The Jewish or Hebrew calendar’s origin date is the Jewish New Year of 3760 BC (which would have been 14 March in that year)
• The age of the earth is based on evidence from radiometric age-dating of meteorite material
• The age of the universe has been calculated using a number of inputs including microwave background radiation (which give the cooling time of the universe since the Big Bang) and measurements of the expansion rate of the universe (used to calculate its approximate age by extrapolation)
• Wikipedia lists nearly 90 different calendars that have been (or are still) in use over time