“No, it is not time / What flows is distance.” If Cemal Süreya – and Aristotle – is right, time consists of distances covered by bodies: Time is the outcome of the movements of celestial bodies such as planets and stars, of living things on earth. Since they are objects that cover distances at various speeds of their own, time for each must be different. So, what does the sentence that we often hear and say —“I do not have enough time!” — mean?
The distance between the office and home, the distance we travel for work and vacation; and the mental distance we covered among so many ideas, communication, shopping, plans and programs. Is time “not enough" because of the movement of our mind, rather than the movement of our body?
Industry had to adapt to the movements of the planet on which it was founded. At the end of a tremendous growth, today it does not care if it is day or night. The time of industrial production and consumption has always accelerated in the last three centuries.
It demands the same acceleration from us: Communication tools enable us to work and consume 7/24. The temporal, spatial and intellectual formula of efficiency is not based on our bodily time; on the contrary, it drags us in its own roaring flow.
The cry “not enough time” finds its echo in a dominating advice: “Change your preferences, prioritize what you have to do: You are in control of your life.” Time victims, on the other hand, reply that it is not about preferences, but about obligations.
Time to read —and write— this short text is not enough to solve this enormous problem, of course. However, it is a good thing to see what the same poet wrote: “A moment is the fountain of infinity.”
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