Most of the time, wealth is measured by the amount of material goods possessed. I wonder if it will remain the case in the future.
An old article I reread recently said “While technology will make everything simpler, simplicity won’t exist anymore”. The gist of it was that while gadgets make things simpler, we do not save that much time because we must spend time getting to know how they work. Some will dismiss me though, saying that we simply take on more tasks just because we have more technology.
Yesterday, I did absolutely nothing. I browsed some websites with no educational value. I spent a few hours on a painting and I finished the day by watching a movie. My “timewasting” day was a welcome relief that I cannot afford very often, even though it did not cost me anything.
Now, the daily grind has caught me. University-related things to do might have disappeared, but they have been replaced by another to-do list: things that must be done but were placed on a shelf to give place to more pressing matters. Time might become the new luxury.
Time ‘IS’ luxury…
When you have time you don’t have the money…
When you have the money you don’t have any time…
Dear Elsa;
” Yesterday I did absolutely nothing. I browsed some websites with no educational value.I spent a few hours on a painting and I finished the day by watching a movie. My “timewasting” day was a welcome relief that I cannot afford vey often, even though it did not cost me anything.”
As I read your journal today I was reminded of the dilemma I went through some years ago to find my own balance and place in the world.
By coincidence I was listening for the first time to a Joseph Campbell interview only last week and I’ll transcribe a portion of it below. Hopefully it will resonate with you and you’ll find value in it.
Interviewer: What does it mean to have a sacred place?
JC:This a term I like to use now as an absolute necessity for anybody today.You must have a room,or a certain hour or so a day,where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning,you don’t know who your friends are,you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is a place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a secret place and use it, something eventually will happen.
Our life has become so economic and practical in it’s orientation that,as you get older, the claims of the moment upon us are so great, you hardly know where the hell you are, or what it is you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you. Where is your bliss station? You have to try to find it. Get a phonograph and put on the music you really love,even if it’s corny music that no-one else respects. Or get the book you like to read. In your sacred place you get the “thou” feeling of life.
Be Well
Dear Ross
That interview portion you posted on my blog couldn’t have come at a better moment. Thank you!