One of my favorite songs is Pink Floyd’s Time, which begins with the lyric:
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
As a youth I felt that keenly, and feared the biting lyric at the end of the second stanza:
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
Well, now I know what it’s like to find ten years have got behind you. And I don’t regret the motivating force that that Pink Floyd lyric had in my life … but now I know it’s not all of the story. And so, on purpose, I did something today I haven’t done in a long time: “wasted” an hour … just reading in a park.
I’d dropped my wife off at the airport, run some errands, gone to the great Bell’s Bookstore in Palo Alto, ran some more errands … but was still an hour early for my dinner reservation at Nola’s. I knew they’d probably seat me early, but it was a spectacular day … so I took the book I’d gotten from Bell’s, sat down on a bench, and read.
I did more than that, of course; I observed the world, watched the passersby, came up with story ideas, took pictures of my environment, watched the cars, called my Mom to see how she’s doing (a day before her birthday, but without mentioning it, so hopefully the flowers I’ve sent her will be even more of a surprise).
And I reflected on all the sources of false wisdom I’ve heard, or more charitably, advice masquerading as wisdom, useful to certain people at certain times during their development, which may not be as universally wise as it first appears.
I don’t want to find ten years have got behind me without knowing it … but for me, that’s led to years and years of pushing, pushing pushing. Sometimes, it’s good to just stop and smell the magnolias.
To cultivate slowing down and watching time pass … and all that passes through time around you.
-the Centaur
