Three to Read: Tiffani Spangler
In each Three to Read essay, the writer suggests three books that share a connective thread of interest. Tiffani Spangler continues the series.
It's a pretty common shared human experience: the attempt at understanding the concept of time. When you ask folks how they view time, you get varied responses: a kid will tell you how vast summer break is, someone in their 30s raising babies will tell you the days are long, but the weeks fly by, and someone in their 60's will tell you how young they feel (and no doubt act).
As much as culture gives us sayings like 'time is merely a construct' or the capitalist view of 'time is money'; I've often wondered - is there any other way that I can understand what time is? Of course, my go-to thought is to find an answer in a book. Did I find one singular answer? No, but I did find a beautiful unfolding of why I'm more settled than ever to continue journeying through time.
Starting in January 2021, The Overstory by Richard Powers tells a multitude of mini-stories tied to a series of different trees. My favorite details a Midwest Chestnut tree, from its planting to the eventual daily documentation of the tree itself through the medium of photography. This storyline gave perspective to the relative shortness of a human's contribution to its environment compared to the longevity and contribution of a tree. The Midwest Chestnut tree was a singular object, and yet it witnessed a multitude of generations passing.
Shortly thereafter, in February 2021, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi made it onto my TBR (to be read) list. On a whim, I sat down and devoured this piece of fiction that documents two half-sisters born in Ghana and follows their bloodline. Again, this passage of time through a familial tie provided solace into how, even though we don't know several generations before or after us, we are still tied through our lineage.
Fast forward to January 2024 in Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. I found this macro overview of time provided a conceptual understanding of how long it took for humans to develop means of writing, counting, and living outside of a hunter/gather or agricultural mindset. It was startling to put in perspective just how young so many of our modern technologies (that we consider fundamental to our existence) are; many have been around for less than 30 years. What is 30 years in comparison to the dynasties that have come before us?
Before reading these three books, you probably would have caught me saying, 'Life is short.' Although the origin of that saying is rooted more in 'why be upset, when life passes so quickly,' it still makes the listener feel like we are losing something with the passing of time. Having read about the lifespan of a tree, the bloodline of two sisters, and, lastly, contextualizing our entire human existence, my narrative has changed, and I believe that life is rather long. The time we have been given is vast.
The Overstory, by Richard Powers
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari's
Tiffani Spangler, a downtown York, PA dweller, finds fulfillment in the creative expression of free writing and film photography. By day, she thrives in her workspace at Tetra Design Co, collaborating with her peers and engaging with the community at the Grotto Community Center. Weekends are spent with her son or immersed in the pages of a book or two. If she is lucky and the weather is nice, you will find her on the back roads of PA cruising on her motorcycle.
All works copyright
Tiffani Spangler, the Authors, Publishers, and/or Andrew T. Smith
Tiffani Spangler
