Time is Monet

Interesting article at CNN on the nature of time and how we value it (or not).

On the one hand I can understand what Cahn is trying to say. Time is one of those commodities that no matter how well you invest it, you can never get more of. So it comes down to how you are going to use the fixed-income investment that is your life.

On the other hand, I am not sure a Time Bank is a good idea. It feeds into a strange need to be organized about something that I think defies organization. How we spend our time is a matter of choices that build on one another. Rather than resort of time banks, perhaps what is needed is a more honest look at the choices that we make, and the trade-offs that come with those choices.

The opportunity to choose is at the heart of democracy. Sometimes I think we have too many choices, and it leads to a kind of paralysis in which we are forever chasing the goal of the moment and fail to appreciate the things that are truly important in life (and I'm not saying that to be smarmy -- what is important in life is a matter of individual choice, but having said that, when you make the choices you make without honestly looking at the consequences you have less standing to complain about the outcome later).

Want to write the great American novel? Seriously? Really and truly? Then do what it takes to make it happen, but be honest with yourself and admit that for every one in a million the other 999,999 people toil in anonyminity, never to finish writing, never to get published. Be honest that you will have sacrifices and trade-offs to make -- how comfortable your life will be, relationships with friends and family, the possibility (or probability?) that you may not to the end goal. That's an extreme example, but I'd wager that the interest rate in the Time Bank is lower than the interest rate in honest confrontation of one's own choices good and bad -- which has a higher rate of return mostly because the risks and uncertainties are higher.

Easier to walk someone else's dog, I suppose. :-)