“Time is money” the old saying goes and we’ve thoroughly bought into it.
But I don’t want to be ruled by capitalism in that way. Sometimes my time can be bought and sold. But sometimes it just isn’t up for sale. Time can be treated as a commodity rather than simply as an object to be enjoyed, but the calculus we end up doing is very ugly indeed.
I wonder if the ancient teaching of Sabbath is supposed to remind us that some times cannot be traded – not simply that the most valuable thing I can give to God is time, but that somehow it’s more precious when I’m not penny-pinching with it. Sabbath time is invaluable because it is un-monetisable, not because it is spent on something of higher value.
This must then infect the rest of my life – how can I continue to treat the rest of my time as a commodity when I have learned to place one day above value? I can start to learn how to be present in a moment, rather than weighing its value in order to decide whether to extend or invest or bail on it.