People always tell me they want to go see more movies and read more books. This comes up because my friends know that I go to see a lot of movies and read a lot of books and (this next part is a guess) they find these two pursuits interesting. And, doable. But most importantly, time consuming.
What people are telling me, I think, is they wish they had more time. The way we spend our days is a complex combination of choice, income, personal responsibilities, and personal well-being. We can’t have more time, obviously, but many people feel trapped by the time they have.
What would happen if we chose better. If we didn’t have to constantly worry about paying bills. If there weren’t real demands on our time that we couldn’t ignore? What other activities would folks be pursuing if they had more unscheduled, un-busy time? What type of creativity and volunteer activity, and enrichment are we denying ourselves and each other?
Here’s a poem about time.
X Amount of Time
Numbers and measurements
Cold calculated
Based on the rotation of the earth
Kept with precision
Knowing what time it is
Greenwich Mean
Is not the same as the feeling of time
How fast or slow time goes
Is related, often inaccurately,
Through memories and emotions
Always falling through our grasp
As it ticks mechanically away
Nothing Ever Happens on My Street 