“Reclaiming my time” – Ms Maxine Waters

We are allotted a set amount of time but unlike the procedural guidelines of a human government the limits are unpublished and unpredictable.

One of the hazards of my modern life is the ability to find so many interesting rabbit holes. There are seemingly an infinite number of really cool things out there in the universe and I’d like to learn more about way too many of them for the time I am given.

When I was young, I had to go in search of new things. Searching became my way of growing. It’s the opposite now and I have to limit what I take in. It is reminding me of a lesson that I had to learn in one of my old jobs. Sometimes, when our environment changes we can misread the cues and be overwhelmed.

I spent years working in hypobaric*chambers. That meant that I had to learn how to breathe with an oxygen mask, like military pilots wear, in a low pressure environment. Breathing in that environment is a reverse of our natural way of inhaling and exhaling. Check it out for yourself. Breathe in. That is the part that takes effort. Now breathe out. You just relaxed and the air left your lungs. When you are in a low pressure environment, the oxygen coming through the mask is pressurized. Once the oxygen is pressurized inhaling is the relaxed state and exhaling requires effort. It can leave you feeling as if you can’t get any air because you can’t take a normal breath. This caused panic for first-timers, myself included.

That’s what the current age of information feels like to me. It is no longer about working to find ideas, or looking for new data. It’s about limiting what comes in and letting go of the excess. Picking and choosing seems backwards to my mind. There’s an abundance that is confounding in its variety. The facts are consistently buried in opinions. The opinions are not subject to peer review and usually contradict each other, if not themselves, from minute to minute. We skim topics because we are trying to absorb too much, but feel we have to keep up with it all. It feels as if I am attempting to learn the entire course catalog at my university in one go. The answer comes back to breathing. When the act of taking in is the relaxed state, then the answer lies in how to choose what and when to let go.

There are still so many interesting avenues I would love to stroll down but I have to limit my itinerary. I cannot visit the world on some grand tour of yesterday and carry my souvenirs home to be passed down to future generations. It’s not done that way anymore. Exploration is now closer to being part of an airline crew. The first time you land in Paris, it’s breathtaking and you bring home something from the trip. Once you have revisited Paris, the souvenirs become less important. The city changes, yet remains the same. That’s how the internet feels now. I can go back and visit, or I can explore something new, but for it to be useful I have to explore it in depth. Picking and choosing how I spend my time and focus is asserting my time’s value.

There’s so much available. So many shiny objects and hearty snacks for the mind. Harvard has some of its catalog on line, MIT has more. The Louvre is online. The British Museum is online. Every single media site wants our attention and most want our money too. The world seems to want us subscribed to a different life instead of living the one we have. That outside world is much more exciting and interesting than I could ever take in and I only have so much life. So I think I’ll be reclaiming my time and spend it carefully.

*hypobaric chamber see below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baSo7vVIo9g