being frank

Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future.

Yep, another line from an oldie written back in 1976 by the Steve Miller Band. Time is indeed slipping into the future and it’s taking us along with it, kicking and screaming.

Time is a very evasive construct. We have segmented it down into ridiculously miniscule components, as if that would help us segregate time into better, more meaningful chunks. Nah; we keep on wastin’, wastin’, wastin’ it into the future. And that is the subject of this commentary: The manner in which we occupy our time.

All tongue-in-cheek humor aside, time is an incredibly precious commodity. Yet it is the only one that, with the possible exception of fresh, clean water, we waste with abandon. Why? One reason may be because we have lessened – no – we have allowed others to lessen the value of our time. Sometimes it’s a matter of generational insensitivities. When you’re 24 years old, you perceive time as something you have plenty to spare, and so you allocate it to things that provide limited pleasure or satiate your curiosity for something that really isn’t worthy of anyone’s time or attention (e.g., any voyeuristic TV program that shows other people or families in a controlled meltdown.) When you’re 74 years old, the train you’re on is slowing down and you’ll need to get off soon. Emulating the inaneness of youth only serves to act like a lit match approaching the manuscript of your life. If you’re not careful to avoid these vapid wastes of time, you may end up seeing the whole of your existence and legacy go up in smoke.

Another reason might be greed. Yes, the credo from Gordon Gekko (which was actually inspired by the real-time financial incubus Ivan Boesky) assures us that greed is good. Yet when we allow others to use our time for the sake of making them a profit, then it’s not so good. Marketing events, entertainment programming, gaming, spectator sports – these and other time-intensive functions or experiences are designed to excite, titillate and captivate your attention. When you’re in their clutches, you are prey to all manner of time-related highway robbery. And a lot of it is considered to be not only acceptable but commendable.

The next time you find yourself enraptured by a slow-motion video of, let’s say, a heroic-looking basketball player rising gloriously above his opponents as he goes in for a dunk, or you watch with envy while the winner of some auto race is smiling in the winner’s circle (festooned as though they were a prized thoroughbred having just won the Belmont Stakes) while camera flashes create an odd stop-motion effect of the scene while champagne from a massive magnum is being poured over their head (in slow motion, of course) by a ravishing-looking person in a bathing suit, ask yourself this: How much time do you spend watching these kinds of events? Neither of these examples is consumed as a single event in and of itself. Watching the full season of NBA games will have you invested (or enraptured) for six months and 82 games. And that doesn’t include the playoffs or finals that add another 2 months to the docket and who knows how many more games (please, you don’t have to answer that.) Auto racing (and I’ll use NASCAR as a benchmark) can have as many as 38 races in a season that lasts for 10 months. How much time do you think you invest in those? I can’t honestly answer that but you probably could. And your spouse or partner probably has an answer as well, though it may contain a few additional adjectives or epithets that you might not want kids to hear.

Now, I am not solely picking on sports. After all, it’s just an industry like any other, but also one that most people are drawn to for entertainment, fun or to share with their children as a form of bonding or learning key lessons about teamwork, collaboration or fair play. I would have written about other sports (such as Cricket, whose World Cup season only lasts 6 weeks and involves 48 matches), but I would run the risk of sounding like the WordPress Sports Desk. I don’t want to ramble on about stats; I want to write about the cost of your time.

Time is the art of investing. We hit that market pretty early on in our career as human beings, and we’re funded primarily (and yes, solely) by our parents who invest in us their time, genetics and love. Those are the elemental currencies we are given at birth, and the only valuable assets we have to spend on this earth for how many years we have. You will most likely pick up additional love along the way, but only a few will see the value in that before it’s too late. You might pick up additional genetics during your human race through the auspices of science. But the one thing you will never get more of in life is time. Does this help a little to see what possesses the most intrinsic value?

They say that time is money, but I call bovine excrement on that. There is more money than sense out in the world, and someone or some country is always making more. No one is making more time; no one has control over time. But we do possess the ability to decide how, with whom and on what we wish to pass our time on this earth. My beloved’s time ran out when she was 66 years, 11 months, and 345 days young. I can honestly say that I would pay anything, give anything or trade anything for the sake of another 24 hours with her. But there was no more time left or given to her, and no one as of this writing (despite my constant prayers) has stepped up to provide a bit more. Because there is no more time.

So, how do you wish to spend your time? With whom do you care to spend your precious moments on this earth? On what do you want to spend your time that might bring you either a greater measure of value or importance, or allow you to help create a world where time will be given the value, importance and respect that it deserves? I’ve chosen to write. What’s yours?