The Unstoppable Marching of Time

The Unstoppable Marching of Time

Time. The passage of time has a profound psychological effect on our behavior and decision-making, shaping our understanding of cause and effect. The experience of time slipping away can be terrifying. Why? Are we scared of what comes after the time is gone? Uncertainty. It's funny, we complain under the pressure of slightest uncertainty/instability, yet uncertainty is ingrained in our life, following us hand in hand. From the moment we're born, we don't know why we've entered this place or where we're going.

Seneca, the ancient Roman philosopher, divided time into the past (unalterable), the present (transient), and the future (uncertain). Everything around us seems to be spinning so fast, with many possible outcomes of a single event based on the chain of microdecisions made at a particular point in time. We will never know how things could've been if we'd done, said, or chosen something else. We're so afraid of making the wrong decision, but the worst approach is leaving things to chance or remaining in indecision, paralyzed by the number of paths you can take and the scenarios you can play out.

Long Term Thinking

The other day, I went to The Interval at Long Now at Fort Mason. The foundation behind it is trying to build a 10,000-year clock somewhere inside a remote mountain in Texas, as a symbol of thinking long-term. It's fascinating how we humans are unique in our awareness of our own mortality and our desire to leave an impact. To me, this desire is an act born out of selfishness with an unselfish outcome.

Life is often said to be better lived when we're acting "unselfishly," seeing beyond our own immediate needs, trying to build something greater than ourselves, and contribute to the generations that follow. Is this true? I guess it's neither entirely true nor false. Everything is subject to debate, in which there are always two camps - for instance, living in the present versus thinking long-term, which, by the way, are not mutually exclusive notions. Everything is relative and codependent. And, although we can't say that everything is an illusion, as some things are backed up by physiological changes, everything is rendered obsolete outside of its existence in our cumulative belief about it, our perception, our social construct.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Chronological (quantitative) time is merely a useful social construct. In contrast, Kairological time (qualitative, from Kairos, the Greek god of opportunity) emphasizes the quality and significance of a particular moment rather than its measurable duration. It's a subjective perception of time. Freedom follows from responding to Kairological moments of opportunity and taking meaningful decisive action, thus increasing the significance of a particular moment in time. This perspective shifts our focus from how much time we have to what we do with it.

So, how do we define wasted time? Wasted time is everything that's not aligned with our values or long-term goals and fails to produce meaningful outcomes - it's time spent without clear intention or direction. Time is limited not only in relation to us but also to the people around us. In practice, to me, the biggest waste of time is engaging in pointless conflict or holding silent grudges against one another because, I believe, there's nothing that couldn't be solved by sitting down and talking through the matter. So my philosophy is to always try and take the first step toward a peaceful and respectful resolution of any misunderstanding as soon as possible.

Time spent experiencing self-destructive emotions such as anger, offense, worry, and pity has no added value to our life or the lives of others. That is, to me, a negative connotation associated with "wasting time." But there's also a positive side of the coin - such as time taken to recharge, reset, and improve focus. The value of such time is highly context-dependent and subjective, so some may see these activities as procrastination while others see them as time well spent.

The Indirect Benefits of The Non-Productive Activities

In our productivity-driven society, it's easy to feel guilty for not being efficient 24/7. I've gone through this phase myself. I'd limit any activities that seemingly wouldn't contribute to my long-term goals, failing to see their indirect benefits, neglecting relationships and social time, and eventually arriving at burnout, stress, and a lack of understanding for why the relentless pursuit of what I thought would make me happy in the future made me so deeply miserable in the present.

Then one day, I read a book about the importance of slowing down and noticing life around me, and it flipped my perspective on many things. Just as our muscles need time to recover when trained so that in the days to come we can lift more and make them grow further, we need to allocate downtime and learn to consciously experience and appreciate every single bit of the process instead of blindly going through the motions.

Mindfulness, living in the present, taking a pause to savor and contemplate - these are the things every self-proclaimed guru broadcasts to us, so we've come to think of them as cheesy and shallow notions misaligned with the reality of daily life. But I assure you, these are the most simple, fundamental truths that we all know yet need to be reminded of to actually integrate them into our lives, for they do make it more fulfilling and purposeful.

Having said that, our mortality or the mortality of our neighbor creates pressure to enjoy life in the present, while the desire for impact often requires long-term planning and delayed gratification. Like everything else, it's a matter of balance. The key lies in finding harmony between living fully in the moment and working towards a meaningful future, between productivity and rest, between personal growth and contribution to society.

In the end, perhaps the most valuable use of our time is in cultivating awareness - of ourselves, of others, of the world around us. By doing so, we may find that the passage of time, while still unstoppable, becomes less a source of fear and more a canvas for creating a life of purpose and meaning.

Hi, I'm Anabel, and this is my personal archives.