Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Time is pleated

Like the pants I prefer, time for me is pleated, not flat.
    A pleat is made when fabric is doubled back upon itself, and secured in place. A much greater length of fabric may be involved than is visible. In a knife pleat, the standard ratio of fabric to finished pleat is 3:1. So three inches of fabric will make one inch of pleat.
    So it seems to me that the fabric of time is gathered or bunched. As in garments, this allows room for movement and expansion.
    It also means that what is visible conceals the gathering of the fabric of many times - the dramas of many lives - into the current time line. We seem to be on a certain event track, running more or less straight. But behind it, there is the gathering, and the ratio of the hidden weaving of time to the visible time line may be much, much higher than 3:1.

1 comment:

Hannah Rappaport said...

As a seamstress I can totally relate to this explanation of time.