Not Enough Hours...

I had a tennis match this afternoon. We always warm up before the match, and today our warm up court was outside. Right as I got to the courts, an hour or so before match time, it started raining. Great. No warm up today. Fortunately, I had my Ipad with me and cracked open an essay I had downloaded at some point in the past for just such an occasion.

The title, "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day" (by Arnold Bennett), initially struck me as a bit too self helpy, but it was a free download that had good reviews, so I gave it a try. I'm not sure when this essay was written, but it was before 1931, 'cause that's when Bennett died.

The essay itself is pretty short; I think I read it in about 25 minutes or so. He takes the idea of never having enough time in a day, and walks through a fairly typical man's day to illustrate where time is lost (on the train reading the newspaper, spending 30 minutes thinking about going to bed, frittering away an evening, etc.).

As he concludes the essay, his main point seems to be that there is a great amount of time lost during an average person's day (he discusses reading a newspaper as a main example, which I think would probably equate to television today, but that's just a hunch), but that time can be reclaimed to the vast benefit of the person. He steps through several activities he thinks "worthwhile" of reclaimed time, but what it seems comes down to is this: find something you are interested in, and go deep. Really learn about it, really think about it, make your brain work and think critically, and find out how much more interesting whatever your chosen subject is. Spend your reclaimed free time doing this, and you will find life that much more fulfilling and interesting.

On a similar note, I finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (by Rebecca Skloot) a few days ago, a nonfiction work discussing the HeLa cell line and its incredible importance to medical discovery since the 1960s. Towards the end of the book, there is a passage that discusses Lacks' childrens' reactions as they learn the rudimentary science involved in cell division. They are able to view their mothers' cells under a microscope for the first time, and a researcher takes the time to explain what is really happening in language they understand. Their reactions are fascinating to read about - they are thrilled and in awe at the new information.

It struck me, during this passage, how thrilling learning new concepts and information can sometimes be. And made me wonder why we sometimes stagnate, getting lost in the mundane details of the daily grind. Do we get lazy? Do we forget how fascinating the process of learning can be? Do we think there is nothing worthy of that much interest? I'm not sure what the answer is. I know I certainly feel stagnant sometimes, and it's sometimes hard to remember how to fight out of it.

I'm going to leave the essay on my Ipad for a while as a reminder to avoid stagnation in life. And also, every now and then, listen to an interesting little song I was introduced to the other day. A friend pointed me to "Shop Vac" by Jonathon Colton. If you get a chance, give it a listen. For some reason, these three things (the essay, the book passage, and this song) all feel connected to me. Or maybe I'm just exhausted from a long, fairly stressful week and I need to go have a drink.  It is 5:00 after all...