Clock Watching
Hi everyone, I have talked before about local time travel which involves slowing and speeding up time (read it here, here and here) and today, I want to talk about being slaves to the clock.
Here in North America, we are extremely clock sensitive. Most jobs start and stop at very specific times and many have very specific break times as well. At my job, the big boss tells his underlings to give a talking to any employee who he sees leaving even 2 or 3 minutes early or arriving 2 or 3 minutes late.
Myself, I am a very punctual person and my main reason for this is to be polite and to show respect to whoever I am meeting with. But overall, it seems really stupid doesn’t it? Isn’t an employee more efficient if he takes a break when he’s tired? (of course I realize this would involve trust so it is a rare thing)
But even this isn’t the clock slavery I’m thinking about. I’m thinking about “clock watching” where you are so anxious for the time to pass quickly that you try to “will it” to move faster. Usually the clock seems to be moving slower than normal here. Seems like the more often you look at the clock, the more annoying it is. (Anyone see that Sopranos episode called “Moe n’ Joe where Vito is a handyman and keeps looking at his watch? Hilarious!)
The best thing to do here is to hit the fast forward key on time (I.e. nap) but this is not always possible or course.
Do you get the opposite affect as well? I sure do, but I’ll bet most of you don’t get it as often. I’m talking about when you realize you are having so much fun at the moment that you want time to slow down. I don’t think many people feel this as often because people aren’t really self-aware of what is really enjoyable in life. Anyways, these are the times when the clock usually seems to speed up.
I have found recently that by reminding myself that the clock moves at a constant speed, I can get some relief from those long slow days. When I’m anxious for time to pass quickly, I remind myself that whoever my boring taskmaster at the time is, he can’t slow the clock any more than I can speed it up. Time keeps marching on.
I sometimes depress myself at dumb times. For instance, I am really looking forward to this weekend – I’m thinking that I’m probably going to have some truly fantastic fun. But I also realize that time marches on, and before I know it, it’ll be Monday morning and I’ll be back to the grindstone of work. Seems dumb for me to be depressed about my fun being over before it has even started!
I am reminded of those commercials about the Malibu Rum that shows Caribbeans to be completely unconcerned with the time of day? It seems like a nice way to live. I’m hoping when I start my early retirement in Costa Rica, I will be able to live like that.
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