It’s About Time
I’ve always valued punctuality. Start times are when you get there. That’s why they’re start times. Yesterday, I was invited to a gathering that was to start at six. It takes me an hour to get to the destination in question. So, I geared my day around that travel time. I even left a little early to get gas. But at the station, when I keyed in the destination, it announced my arrival time as 6:45, which meant I was going to be, gasp, late.
All the way there I fretted. I even crafted what I thought was a funny story about being fashionably late, or devil may care late. But when I arrived no one seemed at all perturbed that I was late, and only a few people listened to my story. They were just happy to see me. And just like that something swam into focus. I realized, on the one hand, that in terms of the clock not all events are created equal, and on the other hand, I’m not nearly as important as I might have supposed. The party was going to happen regardless of my attendance.
It seems odd that it has taken me so long to realize this. It would have relieved a certain amount of stress from my marriage if I had sharpened my social skills a bit earlier. But I believe it is never too late to learn a new trick and shed the shackles of time. Because learning to live with time feels much better than being driven by time, especially since there may not be much time left and I’d like to enjoy the time remaining to me with as little stress as possible.