How long is one hour?

I'm currently helping to promote The Moment of Peace.

The aim is to get a million people to be mindfully silent for one hour;

One Hour. How long is that, exactly?

Sixty minutes. How long is a minute? Sixty seconds.

3,600 seconds? Doesn't really mean much. You could sit and count up to 3,600, but then you wouldn't be being mindful. You'd be counting, and the chances are you'd speed up a bit to get to 3,600 quicker, so you wouldn't complete your hour.

Two thirds of a football match. I don't like football, so for me that sounds like a long and boring time.

It's being silent through Emmerdale and Coronation Street, and no getting up to make a brew halfway through! Imagine how many words of script are spoken in that one hour (and don't forget to include the adverts!)

The website suggests a time of 8pm on Saturday 18th June 2011, which, according to my hasty research, is when most of the nation will be watching Britain's got Bollocks or some such stuff - not something which would distract me or my family from an hour's quiet contemplation and meditation, but there are (sadly) many people out there who just wouldn't want to miss it. If they did, what on earth would they talk about at work the following day? "Did you see so-and-so sing such-and-such?" "No I was meditating." Instant conversation killer!

But I digress.

Do we have any real concept of how long one hour is?

It's the time it takes me to cycle to work, but remove the bike, the tired legs and the landmarks - how do I measure the hour then?

To sit in silence, eyes closed, mindfully (ie without distractions) for one whole hour is quite a task, really!

Of course, you can set an alarm to go off at the end of the hour, but who wouldn't sneak a peek to see how much time is remaining?

I helped organise a 24 hour prayer event last year, and spent the entire 24 hours in a church. I expected it to be an ordeal, a real marathon of endurance. It flew by. Time was immaterial. I only looked at my watch twice the whole time, and was utterly amazed to see how much time had passed. But that's me.

I was going to write about time seeming to drag and/or fly by depending on... what? I'll do that some other time. My hour's up.