Time
Time is such an odd construct.
Do you think Vikings wore wristwatches?
Dusk and dawn. Sunset and sunrise. These are real. They happen every day. Time is not real. It’s just an idea. We made it up.
Chew on that for a while.
Originally, I was going to call this collection Kronos (Time in Greek) as it is a concept I have been thinking about for a very long time and one that crops up regularly throughout the work. Time. The lack of it. The need for more of it. The relentless trudge of it. The unstoppable, infinite force of it.
However, if you really think about it, we invented it. It is utterly meaningless. OK, it’s handy to know what day to put the bins out or when to visit the dentist but really, wouldn’t we all be so much happier and far less stressed without it?
I find that as soon as I have a deadline to meet or even just a set time to be somewhere, time contracts and I am automatically losing my mind with stress. I am far happier on a day when I have nowhere to be and nothing to do and time just unfolds as it is meant to, no alarm to wake me before I am ready and no-one nagging me about my admittedly dreadful time-keeping.
Making the time to be present and to savour every individual moment is what is important to me now and I will never wear a wristwatch again.
Wouldn’t it be a better world if we could just throw our fucking clocks away…?