ti-i-i-ime is on my side

it occurred to me some time after i threw in the proverbial writing towel last night that i never actually managed to get around to why i put that barbara kingsolver quote at the beginning.

so, i'm gonna give it one more try. what i neglected to pull together last night is this:

barbara's point is that we don't get more time by saving time somewhere else. in our lives, time marches ever forward, and we only get so much of it. food prep, when you really do it all, from scratch, it's a lot of effing work. now add to that the time it takes to make your own soap and chop your own fire wood and work your own garden...it's not just a lot of effing work. it's a lot of effing time. it's ALL the time. the beauty of being a part of a local community, a national community, and in some cases (increasingly, and pervasively) a global community, is that no one person, even no one family, is required to do it all. we have people who just make soap. whole industries who provide us with fuel for heating. we take a single role, something small, sometimes (often) even a role that has nothing to do with meeting anyone's actual needs, and in theory we put in our time and we are given the benefits of a complete society.

it's a beautiful system.

but i think there is a point at which this system goes too far. the increasing extent to which our society asks us to fill non-essential roles causes us to forget (both on an individual scale, as well as culturally) what it actually takes to be alive, and what being alive is all about. our lives become over simplified, we expect things quickly, cheaply, simply. we begin to think that life is about saving time, saving money, and saving effort. and ultimately, what do we gain? like i think i managed to say yesterday, there is no greater happiness that comes from this type of living.

the point is, doing these necessary deeds, doing this necessary work, even if society has made it so that it is no longer necessary, it puts you in the moment, and connects you with your needs. in my romantic idealized world, it makes you more aware of the kind of happiness that is real. this place and this time where you are, it is. period. saving time by buying soy milk instead of making your own doesn't make you happier. in fact, learning to make your own soy milk and enjoying the process of making it, and then enjoying the milk as both sustainence and acknowledgement of toil, now that will increase your happiness bar.

learning to be happy and present in the moment, that is true time management. so when i get asked (and i have), why would i want to spend all my time working on things that i can get with no effort through society...like, 'you can't make your own tofu all the time, or you'd spend all your time making tofu,' my response is to ask: what's wrong with that? what's else am i going to do with my time? and why is that...whatever else it might be...why is it better?

what better is there to do on a saturday night than bake bread?