May 31, 2011

White Dog followed me as I went through the house turning pages on the calendars and moving my Planner ribbon from "May" to "June." The WDA napped, quietly dreaming of weekend moments and dinner. "So why do humans spend so much time thinking about time?" White Dog asked in her philosopher's voice.

"The calendars? I like to have them conveniently around so that I can see at a glance what the date is and what is coming up or past. My Planner helps me organize the months so I don't forget any appointments or birthdays or other date sensitive stuff."

"But it is more than calendars. Humans have watches. And clocks built into every device. They have electronic assistants to record schedules. The bank has a sign out front which gives the time and day. Before the engine turns on, Pumpkin tells us what time it is! Why focus so much on something that you cannot change or move back or alter?" White Dog pressed.

"No body worried about the time this past weekend and we managed just fine," she continued. "We slept when we were tired or it was too hot to do anything else. We ate when we were hungry. We explored in the cool parts of the day."

"But we were on vacation and had no responsibilities or obligations; no demands to be someplace at a certain time or day." I countered. "We had time to relax!"

"Listen to yourself. TIME to relax!" White Dog snorted. "Humans have a love/hate relationship with time. You dream of having more time. You covet being Master of your calendar. You get wistful of children who have entire summers freed from the clock. And yet you hate the calendar and its indication of another year rushing past. You look at your watch and wonder where the time went. And yet everyone keeps marching to its demands. What does all this fixation get you?"

I felt my tone getting snappish because she was making valid points. I replied, "In order to navigate through today's world, a human is required to run on some kind of a schedule. It is confining sometimes. It does prevent us from taking an extra hour to watch sunset or going away in the middle of the week to canoe a placid lake. I am one of the lucky ones less tied to calendars and time than most so maybe I am not Time Watching's best advocate. But to many being tied to a clock and a calendar and a regular schedule is directly connected to earning kibble money."

"I still think humans would live in a better world if it was not driven by the tick tock of the clock and the rip of calendar pages being removed." White Dog persisted. "And I do not disagree. Any suggestions, Little White One?"