“We must each be responsible for changing our habits. This takes great discipline, and indeed discipline can be defined as the correct relationship to time.”
– Phil Stutz, Lessons for Living
__________
“Time is a headfuck. You can only live in the present. But your head could be ruminating on the past, hoping for the future or wishing the day away. You can have too much time or not enough. You can waste your time or it can slip away.
The medium is the metaphor. Watches and clocks make us think time is a certain way. Since the invention of clocks, our perception has changed. Time is no longer eternal; time is measurable. We used to think of time as seasons and days, and now we think in minutes and hours.
The smartest thing you can do with money is to buy time. There’s enough money to go around, there’s plenty of money but time – time is running out. At some point your perspective will change. Time will become more important than money.
Would you give up all your worldly possessions to be half your age? I think so, yes. I’d fucking love to be twenty-five again. If you think, no thanks, I’d rather keep my stuff and stay closer to the grave, then I don’t think you’re really gettin’ this time thing.
Time is the most precious resource we have. If you don’t believe me yet, go to a hospice and ask around.”
– Jimmy Carr, Before and Laughter
__________
Time is a ruthless arrow.
You can never go back, but you can fast forward by simple inattention: the days rush past when you are distracted by busy work.
This is entropy by inattention. Things tend to disorder and destruction if we lose sight of what brings us joy.
Daily engagement with the practices that deliver nourishment to the soul help us manipulate our days, as if in bullet-time.
I can dodge the traps and attacks of the mundane by focusing on the fun.
What I value spending my time on will never be identical to another’s. This is another example of the benefits of middle age. The movement away from collective opinion into the boondocks of my very own taste.
By paying attention we slow the ageing process.
After all, ageing isn’t simply a mechanical process, it’s attitudinal too.
Conversations With Quotations 