WASTE REVISITED + New Pictures
[New pictures posted on Scrapbook, page 2: Picture of friends, listening to the Internet Grandfather play the piano; Picture of toddler "ready for golf" on page 1, now eleven years old; Picture of "new friend" from page 1, now two years old]
I've written before about the waste represented by the many airplanes parked in the Arizona desert. But the waste we see in our daily lives is not confined to tangible assets. We see wastes of time, wastes of lives, wastes of talents. These wastes are much more painful to watch and, ultimately, much more costly to all of us. These kinds of waste are sometimes harder to spot, harder to deal with, harder to help with, but if we can contribute to avoiding these kinds of waste we'll do the most for those we help and we'll feel the best about ourselves. I've been thinking that these wastes of human resources all come down to wastes of time.
We all know what talent is. It's the inborn capability to do something well, whether hit a ball, play a musical instrument or tell a good story. It's not instant skill, it's the ability to be skilled, with work and practice. Now we know that if somebody never tries something which would invoke his or her talent, we will never know the talent. In some sense, that might be a waste but it's invisible. When I talk of wastes of talent, I mean the situations where someone tries something, finds his or her talent, pursues it to some extent and for whatever reason doesn't reach full potential. I see this often in athletes: There are many talented athletes who never perform as well as they could. That's the waste, that a person is talented at a desired pursuit and doesn't use it. It has something to do with use of time. The people I see who are unable to use their talent to the utmost are usually people who waste time. They waste time by not practicing, by doing the wrong thing when they do practice, by pursuing frivolous or even hurtful activities.
We all have the same amount of time so in one sense it can't be augmented or depleted. But we can spend our time wisely or unwisely, productively or unproductively, pleasantly or unpleasantly. Time can pass before we notice, before we can see what we're doing. How many times do we watch a television show and find ourselves sitting through other shows we never intended to watch? How often do we look back on a week (or month, or longer) and wonder what happened to the time? If we're not careful, we can look back on many years and wonder what did we do, what did we accomplish. I don't advocate mapping everything out in advance, planning our lives to the minute, rigidly adhering to a schedule. To the contrary, I think free time, unplanned time, can be a good use of time. I advocate simple awareness of what we're doing. If we plan to do something at a particular time, let's do it. If we want to complete a task, or a book, or a rest, at a certain time, let's do that too. If we plan to do nothing for a period of time, that's all right as long as we understand what we're doing.
If we reach the ends of our lives and don't know what we did with our time, failed to accomplish what we wanted with our time, failed to use our time as we wanted, then we can truly say we wasted our lives. No matter what we may have accomplished, no matter how well we may have done in an objective sense, if we didn't do as well as we wanted to and the reason is misuse of our time, we've wasted our lives.
Use your time in the way you want. Accomplish what you want in the time you allow. In that way, you'll minimize waste and feel good about yourself.
1-13-02
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