Watching the Second Hand

I spent a lot of time in school staring at the clock. I did this mostly because the relentless advance of the second hand proved more entertaining than the teacher explaining a concept I already understood for the sixth time, but at least part of me just wanted the day to be over so I could move on to the next big thing.

College was similar – I had to pay slightly more attention, but not a class went by that I didn’t at least glance at the clock (or flash the time display on my cell phone, or check my laptop’s time) to see when it would be over and I could gain some measure of freedom to do something else.

Our society never grows out of this.

The average American is completely unable to process the idea that maybe happiness doesn’t involve 40+ hours each week staring at a clock. People who only work part-time are typically expected to be actively looking for additional work, as if it were a terrible malady to have more time to yourself each day. “Any luck in your job search?” friends and family might ask, blindly assuming you’re running one. It’s the vocalization of our general assumption that if you’re living life correctly, free time should be a luxury – a precious commodity and not a bountiful resource.

There is, of course, the money argument. “You work full-time to support a lifestyle you enjoy.” But even this seems odd, as the core concept of work is trading time for money. When we spend money we’re trying to turn it back into time , but the exchange rate for these currencies is absurd. A reasonable person making $20/hr, for example, should never spend money at a rate less than that – you’ve established that an hour of your time is worth $20, which is 33 cents per minute. It takes (and here I am being generous) 5 minutes to make a sandwich, and you’ll go buy one for $5 at Subway without thinking twice. You’ll even stand in line for 10 minutes for the privilege of doing so, and you’ll walk away convinced you got a good deal.

My rambling point is that we live in a society where everyone wants more time to do the things they want to do, but can’t afford it because we’ve made ridiculous decisions about what time is worth. Turning time into money is easy – at a fixed rate. Turning that money back into time at the same (or even a similar) rate is completely impossible.

The end result? We spend our entire lives waiting for the bell to ring.