Guilt free, time rich

I'm in the city, not working, just watching people walking around. I work part-time, so I earn my keep and help to support my family. But part of me still feels guilty for not being at work when others are. Why do I feel this sense of guilt and obligation? I'm not quite sure. Is it just this collective pursuit of wealth that urges me to join in? There's such a focus on making and spending money that it has sunk to the level of culture and values. To be a valued part of society is to work nine to five, five days a week. But what if I don't want the things that can be bought in shops? What if my most prized object is the stuff that gets sucked slowly from our skin and bones? Time. Am I lazy and worthless for wanting more of that? What have I got to prove to people by working myself dry of time? The answer would appear to be 'nothing'. And who do I have to prove something to? Noone. Yet there are people who I meet who demand a justification for my time-rich lifestyle. To them, if you are not making money, you are wasting your time. This shows us that time has indeed been monetized. We now measure time in terms of the money we can earn each day, each hour, each minute. In the society in which I live, many of us are rich. We have more money than most people in the world. But we are also time-poor. And we cannot reclaim our lost time unless and until we stop gauging time in dollars. So, I guess I just appeased my own doubts and questions. I don't have anything to feel guilty about by working part-time, and I have no one to answer to but myself. But if I want to enjoy my time on this earth, I have to exorcise the voices of a money-hungry society that rise up from inside myself. I need to allow myself to be myself, to enjoy the time I have chosen to have.


Popular Posts