In my initial email correspondence with Owen, I find that I may at least have a sympathetic ear.
He noted, for example, that the time of day is decreed by the government. Canada, he pointed out, is divided into time zones. When crossing the boundary from one zone to the next, watches must be adjusted accordingly.
The boundaries are decided upon by governments around the world in broad accordance with international agreement.
To people of this era, this may seem perfectly normal, but in my era there was no such thing. Time was decided by nature.
We knew it was noon because that was when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. The concept of local time was very much local. Travelling to a town just a few miles to the east or west might be cause for adjusting watches since the sun reaches its peak at different times in different longitudes.
From this we may conclude that time is human-made construct, but I’m afraid it only slightly hints at an explanation of my predicament.
Might one go further and conclude that the naming of years is also a human-made construct, and that I exist 2026 only because the government has decreed that this should be the name of the year?
It all makes my head spin.