"I personally think time is the most precious collectible around, being as it is both priceless and irreplaceable. One person's waste of time is another person's time well spent, and the older I get, the more quickly time gets snatched up. For all the time I've spent trying to save time, things have come out a wash: whether wasted or hoarded, seconds pass like so many beads of quicksilver, sparkling and ungraspable. The more you chase time, the faster it flows."
Her paragraph set me to thinking about my collecting and about my time reference. I have many collections of things that are precious to me. I am the proverbial "squirrel." But I had never thought about the fact that time is a precious collectible. I am aware that I do have a powerful time-centered orientation. We have a clock in each room. I always feel guilty when I am late for a scheduled event. I have even provided training in Time Management techniques. And my use of time has changed radically since I retired. Of course, it seems to go by more rapidly than when I was half my current age, but I no longer "chase time" as I did when I was formally employed. My preferred time reference seems to be towards the present.
Lorianne's post also got me to thinking about frames of reference for the idea of time. Each of us seems to have a habitual time focus, either past, present or future. When a significant bad event happens, there is a tendency to associate it with one of the periods of focus. A lack of adaptivity means different things to different people. Some of us, who can't get out of the past, might think about multiple similar events that have already happened to us. We just can't integrate these events, can't let them go. An overly biased orientation towards the present brings thoughts about what the event might mean in relation to what is going on right now. Perspective is hard to achieve because we haven't learned much from the past; nor do we have the ability to be optimistic about similar enents in the future. If we focus too much on the future, we might get a sense of foreboding and worry too much about similar events happening over and over as time goes by.
Different cultures have vastly different norms around the idea of time. Distorted norms can be very destructive. Some groups, the Talliban, for example, insist on preserving the past at any cost. Some, such as the European Union, leap ahead too quickly into the future without waiting for all members to catch up. And still others, like the Unites States, seem forget their pasts and ignore the implications of today's choices for the future.
Of course where you stand geographically might contribute to the meaning you make of events. The two hurricanes are on many of our minds these days. Thus, a resident of Galveston might associate Hurricane Rita with the past, a resident of Florida might associate it with present hurricane damage in that state, and a resident of South Carolina might associate it with potential future hurricanes still to happen this season.
My closing thoughts raised by Hoarded Ordinaries today center around the value of being present to the moment. I cannot change the past; but I can learn from it. I cannot control the future; but I can choose to look at it more optimistically. What I have is right now; I aware that I am speaking to you as you read this. So I'll say, "Hello there, welcome. How are you doin'?"
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