Time on our hands
Just heard that a school district in Arizona is cutting the school week to four days. School kids will have more free time. And, of course, with thousands of lay offs every week, adults will have more free time too. So with so people having more hours a week to themselves, what will they do with the time? Go shopping? No, that’s out. No one has any money. Sit around the house all day? Nah, that leads to depression and weight gain. Surf the Internet? Start a blog? Read a book a day? Take long walks? Take up drinking? Hunt for a job? Clean the basement, the attic? How can the time and energy we once focused day after day on school and jobs best be put to use? Perhaps the whole idea of what it means to work will change. Perhaps people will realize how stagnant their lives had become going to “work” day after day simply to pay bills. Perhaps education will stop being just a means to a job. Maybe with so many people becoming suddenly idle, we can have some time to think, to think about what’s really important.
A few years ago, I realized that the “work” I was doing wasn’t adding anything to the world, wasn’t making me a better person, wasn’t delivering the meaning I needed to feel alive and whole. Work needed to be redefined. Work needed to be more than about covering bills. Life had to be more than work. Living and giving is what we should be doing.
How about this one: Maybe some of those adults can now spend time with those kids. Maybe even teach them something that can’t be taught in school. What a novel idea, huh?