The Time You Spend - Part 1
We are walking around with no idea... And we keep forgetting.
A few nights ago, I watched an incredibly thought-provoking movie. You know those times when you're left wondering, long after the film has finished, about how it portrays a resemblance to your own real life?
Yeah. One of those kinda movies.
The movie, In time, was set in a world where people grow and age only until they are 25 years old. And, born with a countdown digital clock on their arm, upon their 25th birthday they are given one year, which begins counting down, until their time is up. If time should run out, they drop dead.
They can increase the amount of time remaining, as you would the money in a bank account - through transfers from others, and working to earn more time, from institutions. You can even borrow time from lenders. And with everything that (in our world) we would spend money on, the currency, is time. Time is worked for, and traded as the cost of living.
Coffee? 3 minutes time off the clock as the cost.
Salary? Paid in hours, not money. And depending on the job, sometimes only enough to survive until the next day.
Time Zones? Suburbs where the cost of living changes, and the cost to enter dictates your ability to live and survive there. Like big Cities, and 3rd world countries.
In certain parts of the world, people were living day to day. Hand to mouth, moment to moment. Not sleeping in an effort to work more, to increase their time alive.
“Can you play game with me?” Sorry. I don’t have the time. Literally.
In other parts of the world, time was gifted as inheritance, and the time-rich would spend their days trying not to get killed by doing something stupid, for the gift of having an abundance of time and never ageing meant that they could live forever if they kept themselves safe.
Needless to say, it was eerily thought-provoking, and brought up for some incredibly interesting conversation the following day.
For 2 reasons:
1. What if you really did have a countdown timer on your arm, indicating the length of time remaining in your life, and you could control it through your actions? How would that make you feel day to day? What would you need to be doing in order to keep yourself safe? What would you be doing differently? How would you use your time? Would you be doing everything you’re currently doing?
2. It pointed out a huge underlying theme that spurs life into my every moment. Something that I know so deep in my bones to be true, I felt myself almost moved to tears at the solemn reminder of the fact:
We already do trade our time.
Every damn day. We just don’t have a countdown timer on our arm letting us know exactly how much we have left.
In every conversation. Every glass of wine. Every phone call. Every relationship. Every workday. Every moment of solitude. Every fight, and every thought. We are trading our most precious, and only non-replenishable resource - our time - and we have absolutely no idea how much we have left.
My question to you is, If you knew how much time you had left, would you be where you are right now?
My aim here is most definitely not to frighten you. However, to ask you a question that perhaps you have never thought to ask yourself.
I want to talk about your life with you. I'll bring you more next week, but let me know in the comments, would you?
Stay Curious, Stay open. The life you crave is so much closer than you think.
