There is a timeline for this and a timeline for that. They come in circular and in round – linear and omni-directional. When I found J.J. Grandville’s timeline of stylish hats I tipped mine and LOL. What goes round, comes round.

Grandville made all manner of illustrations, topical to his times and his interpretation of time. Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle had been published in 1839. Grandville’s Man Descending towards the Brute and his Portraits Compared were riffs on and interpretations of evolution. Did he look towards progress/evolvement or does he project the slippery slope of devolvement?

Man Descending towards the Brute, from Le Magasin pittoresque, April 1843

Portraits Compared, from Le Magasin pittoresque, August 1844

The Clock of Eras is here to help us visualize geologic time. It is almost impossible for the human mind to comprehend the amount of time that it has taken for the Earth to develop to its present state, yet we try to imagine each stage of its unfolding and the time that passed during each phase of development. The Cenozoic is the era we live in, though we could hardly say this is the era of humans. We have been present as a species only about 1.5 million years of the 65 million years of the current era. That represents about 7 seconds (in red) on the clock of eras!

Humans = only seven seconds. And you and me = even less than the blink of an eyelid.

In my own go-round with time I created a Geological Timepiece, the watch I wear when I want to know my place in the great scheme of things. When I want time of my life to be put into proper perspective.

On this bracelet the thin slip of orange, a hair’s breath, represents the amount of time we humans have been on the planet. As this bracelet turns, it passes by each of the eras.

To contemplate the vastness reminds of the importance of finding meaning in our own smallness because being human, human being is a big deal.

What goes round, comes round…