Admittedly, I am one of those who’d rather be an hour early than a minute late. It is such a thing with me that even if I expect to be five minutes late for an appointment, I will call and let them know. It doesn’t matter if it’s a doctor or a restaurant; being late bugs the hell out of me.
But there are some who look at time as fluid. Whenever they arrive is the ‘right’ and appropriate time. These folks have mastered the shoulder shrug. I am not saying that they have a blatant disregard for others or for appointments (there are some like that), but that time commitments are set as “sometime around…” You know…”ish”
Those who operate on an ‘ish’ clock drive me a little crazy—but there is a casualness and calm about their demeanor, while I feel my blood pressure soar if I feel like I’ll be late. Those in the ‘ish-club’ seem to live with a greater sense of ease and comfort, even if they drive others (like me) crazy.
If we boil it down, we know that we’re all going to die, so why get too excited if you stroll in 5 minutes late? There’s something to be said for that, surely. However, to me there is a hard line when it comes to respecting the available time allotted. We can waste it, we can ignore it, or we can savor, appreciate and make productive use (which might mean sitting on a comfy chair reading a book or taking a nap) of it.
I guess the magic is knowing where “ish” is ok and when it’s simply not. In Chapter X, our time is unstructured. We can default to “tomorrow, I’ll…” thinking or we can create a flexible structure that respects both your desire to take your foot off the pedal and not going full on couch potato.
It’s a conundrum…but one that benefits from some consideration.
What do you think?
