Join me at the calculator. Think about 60 years. Now do the math---
720 months
3120 weeks
21,900 days
525,600 hours
31,536,000 minutes
1.89216e9 seconds
You know you're getting up there when the calculator won't even do the hard numbers anymore and start giving numerical exponents to the ninth power. Give me a break!
Now, contact the American Time Use Survey site (ATUS) here to do the advanced math on how us Americans use the precious gift of our time. It won't take long to figure out why most of us are dragging on Monday mornings and, furthermore, why time mania has made us the most psychotic people on earth. Truly, we are people of the clock.
The ATUS stats are interesting for a number of reasons. Really, there are no surprises in the numbers. I mean, most of us have to work for a living, all of us have to sleep, and well, it takes a certain amount of time to do all the things on the day-timer, no matter who you are or where you live. Brushing your teeth is brushing your teeth. One of the interesting comparatives involves the year-to-year shifts in the routine stuff of life. Most categories are relatively constant. Changes are typically incremental, small annual adjustments. Even so, the work is a good picture of who we are, on average.
OK, so I'm on a OCD time fixation right now as I reflect on being a little more long in the tooth. Shoot, I don't feel sixty. But, there's plenty of evidence to affirm it---gray hair, crows feet, spare tires, aches and pains, squinting more, the hearing thing, drooling, snorting, and, well, you get the picture. They are all enough to remind me once again that we have this treasure in jars of clay, that every moment is precious, and that we should use them wisely.
So, I'm going to be a better time manager tomorrow, you know, cut my tooth brush time down by a few seconds, take a few minutes less in the shower, zip through the newspaper more efficiently, and devote more of this treasured commodity to the things that really matter---faith, family, friends, fellowship, and yes----stop and smell the coffee.
Solomon wrote---"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun---all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom" (Ecclesiastes 9:7-10).
Sound pessimistic? No. It's reality. It just reminds to make the most of the moment too. And, it only took 60 years for me to learn that lesson. Well, duh?!?