FFF: Time

 "Time is having its way with you."

That's a phrase I remember from this 1992 video:



It is true, though.  We cannot control time, only what we do with it.  Complicating matters is the fact that time is...more or less...a human construct.  As Douglas Adams said, "Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so."
It allows us to mark when something happened and how long since it transpired.  It also creates demarcation points.  Something "should have happened" by a certain point.



Like New Year's Day.  We think of it as this arbitrary "fresh start" and then bemoan the fact that "nothing changes on New Year's Day."

We're also good at expecting things about ourselves to have happened or been accomplished by specific points on the artificial timeline.  I know that I certainly do.  It probably isn't healthy.  "I should be making this much money by this time," "I should have (fill in the blank) accomplished by this time."

There's that word again.  "Should."
If I've learned anything, it's that "should" doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot.




"Spared and blessed by Time,
Looking tranquility."--Lord Byron

"The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time."

That above quote by Dante Alighieri seems almost a predecessor to all of those American sayings such as "time is money."  Hurry up now.  Hurry up.

Well I'm sick of time.  Sick of worrying about it anyway.  Don't know how much more of it I have.  No one does.  I can't finagle more of it.  No one can.  I just know that I want to do something with it.  But no longer will I suffer self or society-induced punishments because I am not "where I should be" or possessed of "what I should have" by this "time."

I don't have a six figure or even high five figure salary.  I am not in management.  I have never worked for a corporation.  I do not have children.   
I chose a different way.  I'm ok with that.  There are losses and consequences as there always are...but I have not lost myself.  Came close once or twice, but I made it.  I would rather disappoint anyone's corporate life timeline than ever lose myself.

"Time won't leave me as I am.
"But time won't take the boy out of this man."




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