Time

"Time can be considered a specific continuum where the relationship of movement and speed are measured through linear means." (PoL).

Time carries layered symbolic meanings that touch on humanity's deepest concerns:

Mortality and Impermanence Time is perhaps most powerfully a symbol of human finitude. The ticking clock, the hourglass, Father Time with his scythe - all remind us that life is limited. "Time waits for no one" captures our inevitable march toward death and the transience of all things.

Change and Transformation Time symbolizes the impossibility of stasis. Rivers flow, seasons turn, children grow - time represents the constant flux of existence. Nothing remains as it was; everything is becoming something else.

Opportunity and Loss Time embodies both potential and regret. "Time is money" reflects opportunity; "lost time is never found again" speaks to irretrievable moments. Time symbolizes the choices we make and those we let slip away.

Healing and Wisdom "Time heals all wounds" positions time as a gentle force that softens pain and brings perspective. Time also represents accumulated experience - the wisdom that only years can bring, cycles witnessed, patterns recognized.

Judgment and Revelation "Time will tell" suggests time as ultimate arbiter of truth. What's hidden eventually surfaces; what's false eventually crumbles. Time symbolizes the patient unfolding of consequences and the revelation of what truly matters.

Constraint and Freedom Time can symbolize oppressive limitation - deadlines, aging, "running out of time." Yet it also represents freedom: the future's open possibilities, second chances, new beginnings. "A new day dawns."

Cyclical vs. Linear Culturally, time symbolizes either eternal return (seasons, reincarnation, "what goes around comes around") or linear progress toward some end point - capturing different worldviews about meaning and destiny.

Time ultimately symbolizes the human condition itself - our awareness of past and future, our existence within flow rather than stasis.