Daylight savings time and temporal contexts and stuff


Sometimes concepts all just pile on at once.

This morning I was putting together some lecture material for a class where I will be discussing contextual factors and why they are important to occupational therapists.  Ironic.

Contextual factors are defined as interrelated conditions that are within and surrounding the person.  We generally break them down into personal, cultural, virtual, and temporal categories.

The reason why it is ironic is because someone told me today that it is my Dad's anniversary.  Not really.  It is the anniversary of his death - five years ago now.  I never consider that it is his anniversary.  The five years since that event is an important example of temporal context, or maybe it is supposed to be.  Temporal contexts refer to stages of life, times of day or year, duration and rhythms of activity, and even history.  Basically, they provide a backdrop of time for the way that we consider things.

I don't always process time in quite the same way as other people, I notice.   I have a picture on my desk of when I was 4 years old and my Dad is holding my hand as we are walking down the steps of my grandmother's house.  It could have happened yesterday, by my reckoning.  It is kind of a timeless photo to me and it represents something that I don't want to ascribe time to.

Same goes with the way that I perceive some of my friendships.  I have been friends with a couple guys in my hometown since we were all kids.  I don't see them often, or even have contact with them on any social media.  But when I go down there, no matter how long it has been since we have seen each other, we just pick up as if we had all seen each other yesterday.

Today is also the beginning of Daylight Savings Time.  It is a concept that I have abhorred my entire life.  I can wrap my brain around some pretty heady concepts, but don't ask me to interpret what has been lost or gained around Daylight Savings Time.  I just don't get it.

Thoreau said "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.  I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is.  Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains."  I read that when I was 15 years old, flying across the country for a visit to family in Washington State.  Up until that time, I don't think I can recall a quote that made more sense to me.  That is why I remember reading it for the first time so vividly.  I can't even express how tickled I was to learn how transcendental concepts worked their way into the thinking of some OT founders.  Seriously, in consideration of all things that can happen in a person's life, how likely is it that one of the first quotes that ever made sense to me also happens to form the basis of a philosophy of self-reliance and autonomy that people built a whole profession around?  That's pretty amazing.

Anyway, I don't do time jumps.  I don't know what Daylight Savings Time means.  I don't forget history or say, 'The past is the past' because to me it just isn't - it is all a part of the eternity that we are floating in.  And five years ago is the same as yesterday.

That's about all I have to say about temporal contexts.

Comments

Mike said…
LOL! Chris, that's why I called to say hi March 7. Although we did not talk about it. Love you.
12:48 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On retained primitive reflexes

Each year I receive several emails from colleagues about 'retained primitive reflexes.'  I am also seeing an increased number of reports from local 'health care' providers who are documenting these alleged problems so I thought I would write a summary of my opinion on this topic.   Predatory 'health care' providers including some OTs, PTs, chiropractors, and behavioral optometrists are creating a new 'market' for treating this alleged 'problem.'  Parents should be very wary of these practitioners and other professionals should challenge these practices whenever they are seen. The following is the kind of information that causes concern and was provided to me by a colleague as a sample from a student's IEP: The student continues to demonstrate the following retained primitive reflexes that at times interfere with his ability to demonstrate appropriate adaptive responses: Fear Paralysis Reflex, Moro Reflex, Palmer Reflex, Tonic Labyri
Read more

Deconstructing the myth of clothing sensitivity as a 'sensory processing disorder'

Please note first that there is no formally recognized clinical designation of  'sensory processing disorder.'   It is a term constructed by occupational therapists that has not been formally recognized by the larger medical community. In our clinic we receive many referrals from local pediatricians when parents have concerns about children being overly sensitive to their clothing.  Most often the children referred are from four to seven years old and the families are severely disrupted by the children's behaviors and responses to clothing issues.  Commonly, children will have severely constricted tolerance for certain outfits, want to wear the same clothes repeatedly, complain that clothing is itchy/scratch/bumpy/wiggly/ouchie, and this all leads to disruption of daily dressing routines.  There is no doubt that the behavioral concerns are very real. The pediatricians tend to be appropriately conservative and provide families with good behavioral management suggestions
Read more

A Critical Appraisal of Therapeutic Listening

Image
History: According to Frick (2002, p. 358), auditory training has been used in Europe since the mid-1900s to address sensory processing disorders and these techniques have been recently popularized in the United States. Frick has based her Therapeutic Listening program on the work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis and Dr. Guy Berard, both of whom are French physicians. Both the Tomatis and Berard programs are delivered by specific machines using earphones but these devices do not have FDA approval and have been banned in the United States (Barrett, 2003). Frick (2001) states “With the advent of new technology, similar altered music has become available on compact disc. The discs do not replace either the Tomatis Method or the Berard Method. The compact discs do provide a less intense way to access both the auditory and vestibular systems to impact neural function and integration and are easily available to clinicians in a variety of practice arenas.” The CDs referenced on Frick’s webpages are ass
Read more