It's about time.
...A dispatch from bewilderness
Eternity lost some of its mystery around 1275, when the mechanical clock was invented, probably by Italian monks, to time their prayers. The minute hand was added in the 1500s.
Four hundred years later, labor was negotiating with management over the number of seconds a worker might require for a bathroom break. Time is far from immutable: Many of its basic structures are remarkably new, including the weekend (100 years old) and daylight-saving time (200 years old).
This brings us to “When Harry Met Sally” or rather to a scene in which Harry brags, “When I buy a new book, I always read the last page first,” Harry brags. “That way, in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. When the s—t comes down, I’m gonna be prepared, and you’re not.”
Seems like a bunch of crap to me. Is anyone really prepared?
I live with 400-odd people, though most are not as odd as me. They hold a lot of meetings. From what I could tell when I attended them more often, 2.5 things occurred at each meeting.
People disagreed about what was or wasn’t accomplished at the last meeting. Then they disagreed about what should be accomplished at the next meeting and when it should be held.
Meanwhile, democracy is eroding, politics are toxic, wars are raging, America is losing/trashing/bashing allies, the planet is burning, young people can’t afford homes, unhoused people are freezing or boiling or drowning, rich people are buying new faces and breasts and legs and thighs and abs and hair.
But salamanders? They’re making progress. They regenerate lost limbs and might be willing to lend us a hand, or an arm. Fyi, in 1617, Galileo invented a clock you placed on your head like a helmet “for the purpose of telling time.”
I used to wonder what “telling time” meant. What would you tell it? Time tells us stuff, not the other way around. Like when to wake up, when to sleep, when to eat, when to work, when to get on a train or a plane. But it doesn’t tell us something even more important: How best to use the time we have.
I love every damn thing you write. And your art.
People disagreed about what was, what should be and what to do with time we have left. So much wasted time. Brilliantly described. Thank you for your words.