Let me say this first, I don’t consider time to be all that important. What I mean is that from my own personal vantage point, when someone needs me, I am there. I don’t put limits on the hour of the day or the weather. The people I know don’t ask things of me lightly. Usually, if someone needs me for something it’s a task they can’t achieve on their own.
Sleep has always been kind of an enemy of mine. I regularly average about 5 hours per night. This isn’t new; I’ve been less than a fan of sleep since I was 10 or so. Joining the Army only drove that aspect deeper into me. There were frequent 48 to 50 hour marathons of work. You would snatch sleep where you could and got used to resting in the oddest places.
Unfortunately this has caused me not to understand or appreciate how some people need 8 to 10 hours of sleep a day. I have a former neighbor who pretty much spends his entire weekend sleeping or taking constant naps. For him this is a good thing and the way he wants to live his life. More power to him I say. But it’s an alien concept to me.
The problem with all this usually happens when I need something from my wife at 2AM. She is a sleeper. One of those people who can fall asleep in 3.2 seconds. I’ve always been amazed at how she can be talking one moment and softly snoring before completely getting out the last of her sentence. How is this a problem you ask?
Well, there isn’t a common middle ground about time. I think nothing of being awake and working until the wee hours of the morning. If she makes it past midnight it’s usually cause for celebration. I know that our bodies are different and I’ve grown used to not sleeping all the time, but I am really beginning to wonder just how deep that difference goes.
Sleeping is a form of death to me. A period of time that I just exist and am not in some sort of control. Just like time, which I consider an artificial thing that humans created to keep track of their lives. I’ve been in situations where I’ve lived on a schedule that is closer to the way that the world actually works. You wake when it’s time to wake, not to some fucking alarm clock. Your body gets the rest it needs according to its own internal clock. To me that’s more natural, but the problem is, the working world survives on an artificial schedule that no one even knows who created.
You have to wake up two to three hours earlier than normal in order to ‘get ready’ or ‘beat the traffic’. And for some reason those of us who manage to find ways to make money with methods that don’t require a 9 to 5 schedule are looked at like some kind of aliens. If we don’t work for a company or deal with rush hour traffic then there is something wrong. We aren’t living ‘the American dream’. It’s pathetic. I really can’t imagine anything more American than making your way under your own steam. Its how this country was built.
I know three music stars, multiple writers, some website designers and one photographer who are making money hand over fist without the normal 9 to 5 grind. Their schedules are their own. They work quite a bit harder than the average person who puts in 8 hours at the office, but they are still viewed at as if they are slacking in some way. It’s all a bit sad.
And then there is the impact that artificial time schedules have on children. Studies have shown over and over again that when children pigeonholed into the same social standards without thought for that child’s individual gifts, the child suffers. Creativity is reduced, original thought is stifled and long term growth is sacrificed for conformity. Now magnify shoving children into that mold over the course of a lifetime and what do you get?
I won’t answer that. There are people out their light years smarter than me who have it all figured out.
Anyway, time for me is something that happens at its own pace. I try not to put limits on things because I am not in control of anything outside of my immediate environment. (It’s a work in progress and I am not always able to maintain my focus or my composure) If my wife, family member or good friend needs me at 3AM I am not going to quibble because it’s dark outside. I am also trying my hardest not to stick my kids into any one version of how they should spend their time. There are structured moments and there are moments that just exist. My greatest hope is that they turn out to be adults who know when to worry about time and when not to.
In other words, not slaves to a damned time clock. Wish me luck…
Peace.
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