Excerpt from Dr. Philip E. Humbert’s “The Innovative Professional Letter”:
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It was the invention of factories that made people began thinking about how many hours they worked, and it wasn’t until after World War II that the average person owned a watch.
Think about how life has changed because digital watches now tell us it is 9:57, rather than “about 10 o’clock”. I typically have clients call at exactly top of the hour, and if either their clock, or mine, is a few minutes off wee we end up apologizing to each other for being “early” or “late”.
Imagine living any time in the past 10,000, before you got your first watch. When the sun came up, you got up and went to work. When the sun went down, it was time to quit. In the winter, there was less light, and workdays were short. In the summer, with more light, there was more work but also more time to swim play or plant and harvest.
I doubt anyone would want to go back to those days before the intervention of electric lights… but in simpler, easier rhythm, I suspect there was greater opportunity to find and enjoy one’s “self”. Time beside a lake soothes the nerves. Time slows down… Perhaps even our experience of life slows down.
It seems to me that time is rather “made up” concept… There’s an old song that says, “I took off my watch, and found I I had all the time in the world.” However you measure time, be sure to allow time for your life. Make time; take time for the things that are important, for the people you love and the things that bring you joy. Take time to find yourself and experience reality, truly LIVE your life, before time runs out, and it’s over.
A Thoughtful Paper 