Tag: time

Spending Time

and Thinking About What is Valuable

We find ourselves in strange times. I wasn’t thinking of social distancing and self-quarantine when I began this month’s topic but now these ideas, and many others, occupy our time. I began the month with idea of how we mark and spend time. I guess I’ll end the month with a reflection on how I’m spending my time now.

A teacher in high school taught the class about the phrase ‘Carpe Diem’ (this was a long time before Dead Poets Society) and I took it to heart. For quite a while I tried to live each and every day to the fullest. Of course seizing each day and living it to the fullest doesn’t really address issues of rent and groceries, something I learned shortly after graduation. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t enjoy and get as much as we can out of each day but we must balance those desires with our responsibilities to self and others. My views regarding time have evolved over the years and they are evolving once again in light of current events.

Don't Park Here #3 (D70-edit)
“Out of Time”

I’ve marked the passage of time with cigarettes and beers. I’ve spent time planning and wasted time waiting. I’ve recorded time through journal entries and blog posts, and I’ll always remember the times of personal gains and losses. And now? Now is the time to be aware and to be careful. Now is the time to be healthy and to be safe. Now is the time to help others, and I can’t think of a better way to spend my time.

-K-

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When the Clocks Strike 13

Movies with Interesting Uses of Time and Narrative

  • Pulp Fiction (1994)
  • Groundhog Day (1998)
  • Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Memento Movie Cover
Memento (2000)
  • The Jacket (2005)
  • Clue (1985)
  • High Noon (1952)
  • Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Irreversible Movie Cover
Irreversible (2002)
  • 12 Monkeys (1995)
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
  • Tape (2001)
Run Lola Run Movie Cover
Run Lola Run (1998)

-K-

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How We Spend Our Time

May Be How Others Spent Their Time

How often do we wish we could have a little time to ourselves? Time is something that we can keep to ourselves. Time is also something we can borrow (and steal), but it is also something we can share with others. I find how others spend, or spent, their time fascinating. I’ve felt this way ever since reading The Diary of Anne Frank way back in 8th grade. Learning how somebody else spent their time can be informative, entertaining, and even humbling. Margaret Sartor’s Miss American Pie A Diary of Love, Secrets, and Growing Up in the 1970s is one such example.

Sartor’s diary can be read on a couple of levels. If you want to take an academic approach to the diary it can be read as a first person account of life in the American South in the 1970s. Reading the diary as a historical document can provide you with as much insight as some textbooks covering the same time period and geography. You can also approach the diary as a record of an adolescent girl’s struggles, defeats, and triumphs.

Miss American Pie by Margaret Sartor

I took the second approach when I read Sartor’s book and was amazed with how much I had in common with her. Upon closer study I realized that it isn’t so much that Ms. Sartor and I are some sort of kindred spirits as much as we were, at one time, both adolescents. I’m not implying that all adolescents have the same experiences, but that time period of our lives does present similar struggles. This is what I find most appealing about Miss American Pie. We all may be individuals moving through life on our own paths that on occasion run parallel and sometimes intersect, but we often share similar struggles during the same time periods of our lives.

Margaret Sartor’s Miss American Pie is at turns informative, entertaining, and subtlety humbling at times. Seeing how somebody else spent their time (even if it is a decade or century a part from your own) can help us put our own lives and times in perspective.

-K-

Miss American Pie A Diary of Love, Secrets, and Growing Up in the 1970s (2006) by Margaret Sartor.

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Marking Time

With Cigarettes and Beer

How do you mark time? I’m not referring to time in the sense of major life achievements such as births, deaths, and graduations. I’m asking how you mark time during a day, an evening, or possibly a weekend? Is time marked by books read or shows binge watched? Is time marked by errands ticked off on a Saturday to do list? I’ve marked the passing of time by all of the above and by other means too. Marking time by cigarettes snubbed out in an ashtray (this is when you could still smoke in bars) and a row of empty beer bottles was common practice for me at one time.

“Cigarettes and Beer”

I still drink my share of beer and smoke a cigar on occasion, but I don’t while away my time at bars like I used to. I look back to those afternoons and evenings at the local bar and can’t help but think about how that time was spent. Was it time well spent or was it time wasted? At first glance I could easily say it was wasted time and that I could have invested my time in something more productive. But a second, closer look reveals that I would not have memories of listening to my favorite songs on the jukebox, playing games of darts, and intense conversations with friends (that often included copious notes written on napkins) if I did not spend time at that local bar. It’s easy to get hung up on how we could have better spent our time when maybe we should try to truly enjoy what our time bought.

We may look back at how we spent our time and wonder if watching TV shows, reading books, ticking off to do lists, or knocking back beers was worth it. Time spent isn’t necessarily time gone. Before we think that time was misspent let’s take a moment to see what it bought, because good memories are investments that will always pay out sound dividends.

-K-

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Authors on Time

Time Well Spent

• “Time is the longest distance between two points.” -Tennessee Williams-

• “Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.” -Stephen King-

• “Punctuality is the thief of time.” -Oscar Wilde-

“Too Many Books…”

• “Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.” -Alice Walker-

• “Time moves in one direction, memory in another.” -William Gibson-

• “And meanwhile time goes about its immemorial work of making everyone look and feel like shit.” -Martin Amis-

-K-

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I wish I did a better job of marking the days.

-K-

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An Hour, A Day, A Lifetime

The Use of Time to Create Tension

Tension is wound into time. I could come up with some sort of watch metaphor here but most people don’t even wear watches (especially the kind you wind) anymore so let’s just jump right into it. Tension drives conflict in fiction, and conflict is necessary for a good story. Utilizing time to build tension is a good storytelling technique. Kate Chopin and Ernest Hemingway incorporate time into “The Story of an Hour” and “A Day’s Wait” to build tension that drives their respective plots forward.

Complete Novels and Stories by Kate Chopin

The titles of these short stories (and I mean short-added together they aren’t seven pages) establish specific time frames in which the stories take place. These time frames, an hour and a day, create a limited amount of time for the action of the story to unfold which adds to the tension. These timeframes also show us how an hour or a day can feel like a lifetime depending on the conflict the character faces. Both stories build subtle tension toward their dramatic reveals. Both Chopin and Hemingway use time to build that tension which in turn makes the stories’ climaxes all the more powerful.

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

Using time to build tension is an effective storytelling technique. Kate Chopin and Ernest Hemingway use this technique in “The Story of An Hour” and “A Day’s Wait” to drive the plots forward and develop powerful climaxes. I don’t want to spoil the stories for you, I’ll just say that both are worth a read (or should I say worth your time, yep I just had to add that).

-K-

“The Story of An Hour” from Complete Novels and Stories by Kate Chopin

“A Day’s Wait” from The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway

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Some Thoughts on Time

More than Numbers on a Clock

March has rolled around again. Some consider it foreshadowing for spring (there’s that old saying about lions and lambs). Others look forward to St. Patrick’s Day with all its green beer glory. March means another birthday for me. I’ve never put much thought into birthdays, but there have been a few happenings of late that have me thinking about the passage of time.

“Clock Face”

How do we mark the passage of time? Is it marked by the number of drinks and smokes we put down in one sitting (I’ve put in some time tonight)? Is it marked by how much effort we put into planning? Is it marked by how long we wait for just the right moment to occur before we act? Is it marked by journal entries and social media posts? Is time marked by what we gain in life or by what we lose (maybe both)?

I’ve got a birthday coming up, and recent events have me thinking about time. This month I’m going look into the idea of time and try to gain a little perspective on the topic. I’d like to hear what you think about time and how we mark its passing.

-K-

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