The book 'Time: A User's Guide' by Stefan Klein explores something very ordinary, it talks about TIME. I never thought that there is so much to be said about time to fill a whole book.
"Our modern lives are ruled by minutes and hours. We race from one thing to the next, all of us believing on some level that a mysterious cosmic force called 'time' is ticking on. And it's always short in supply."
Even though time has been set in certain parameters by clocks and calendars, it remains something subjective and experiential. We know the feeling of time flying by or when it seems to be crawling like a snail. We use the word time a 100times a day when we say 'I'm running out of time', 'I am in a rush, I don't have time', 'finally time to relax', 'lunch time', 'time to talk', 'take your time', 'bedtime', ...
The book offers theories and facts from different disciplines including brain physiology, social psychology, philosophy, history and Einsteinian physics.
I was fascinated by the fact that time is something so self-evident in our lives, but that in fact there is so much more to it. For example the fact that we all have an inner clock which, even if we lock ourselves up in a dark space without any reference to time, still functions almost to the minute determining day and night.
A change in perspective was spared by the fact that many of us treat time as this magic force which is ticking on without us having control over it. The truth is - we are in control of our time. We are actually not running out of time, but in fact we are mostly not using or applying our time wisely. We are the ones that can set our own priorities and divide time in a way that is suitable. Even though we are the generation with more leisure time at hand than any generation before us. However, we are more stressed and feel less in control of our time. The reality is that our choices to spend our leisure time have quadrupled - which is actually the real factor that stresses us out. There are constantly all these options what we should and could be doing. Just think back to the time before cellphones, before the Internet, before satellite/cable TV - much fewer things to consider. I am certainly not promoting a world without these inventions but this entry should just be a short reminder when we get stressed out that we have the power to prioritise and to choose.
Enjoy your time!
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