Letter to Time, this time

Dear Time,

I was hoping to finish writing this letter on time as indicated in the challenge. You fly way too fast. 

Let’s eat that frog first, shall we? There have been numerous occasions where I wanted you to freeze so that I can capture that moment. This is not that time. I would want you to either rewind with all the memories intact so that we can avoid this pandemic or fast forward to an era where a cure is already available. Right now, it looks like Thanos has clicked his finger and the superheroes are dressed up in uniforms trying to save the world. Good time to use the Eye of Agamotto, I guess.

Now that we have addressed the customary situation topic, let’s move on to a tangentially different topic. I know you are important and you are the basis on which the entire universe runs. Be it the revolution of the moon around the earth, rotation of the earth around itself or its revolution around the sun. Men have been always fascinated by you and tried to understand you by putting you in a structure. Given the standard time patterns the world follows now or the complex time calculations mentioned in the Hindu Scriptures thousands of years ago. I had even written about this quite some time ago. We may not be too far away before we humans find a way to bend you and classify you as the fifth dimension. Christopher Nolan thinks so. 

But, do you know how humans have converted you into business? Some successful businessman in the industrial era said once that time is money and everyone followed it like a herd. Everything in modern day business is based on time. People are paid by the hour, are given a deadline to complete their tasks, the fastest person wins, etc. Smarter ones charge by the hour and the unlucky ones get paid by the hour. 

And then man thought how can we extract more out of you, Time. Let’s make people feel like they are wasting time, let’s tell them they could be making money instead of that free time, let’s advocate working 80 hours per week, let’s revolutionize this and called this industry “productivity” industry. There will be books on productivity, online courses, workshops, innumerable methods, tools, YouTube videos and podcasts and price it high, for which people and companies sign-up freely thinking their time management is the problem and not the fact that they don’t really know what they want to do. Higher the price, more subscriptions because somehow many people equate price to value. 

In this regard, I am with Marthe Troly Curtin, who said

“Time you enjoy wasting is not a wasted time”

Or with Einstein who said

“Time is an illusion”

Or Oscar Wilde, who said

“Punctuality is the thief of time”

I would like people to use you wisely to just kick-back and enjoy by doing nothing. I wonder how much more will be extracted from you in the future. Only you can tell.

Cheers, Me