Time
Time always seems to be an issue. There’s never enough … It says a lot about our culture. I recall being told that Eskimos have numerous words to describe snow whilst sheep farmers have a variety of words to describe their animals and mountaineers too have a wide vocabulary around their specialism. I haven’t done a comparative exercise around the words associated with time, but here are some thoughts to ponder upon.
Steve Jobs: Your time is limited, so don’t waste time living someone else’s life.
Henry David Thoreau: It’s not enough to be busy, so are ants. The question is, what are we busy about?
Franklin Field: The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in five words: “I did not have time”.
William Penn: Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
Daniel Laertius: Time is the most valuable thing that a man can spread
How long is a moment?
You could just as easily substitute ‘now’ for ‘moment’ given the varieties of understanding around that little word. A South African ‘now’ is definitely not the same as a British ‘now’ and can easily get you into trouble.
Books specifically related to time include:
3AM
The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
In our time – Ernest Hemmingway
The reckoning of time – Bede
Thanks to India Times for inspiration