Disclaimer: This is my scattered mind at work. I’m still processing through this concept as it has been revealed to me. I’m mostly writing this to help with the processing.
I would like to reflect on how time has affected the culture in which I have grown up. The clock is my life. I was born at 9:46pm on Friday November third at Saint Agnes Hospital in Fresno, CA. What a modernist statement. My life has been characterized by systems and categories that define who I am. Time is a category that defines all aspects of my life. I wake up at a certain time to get class at a certain time. Class keeps me until a certain time until I go to lunchtime that is followed by study time (then tea time if you’re a Brit). Later I will partake in dinnertime and maybe a time to workout. Then I will have some more study time and then spend time with God then it’s bedtime. Time is central to my daily life. To be completely honest, time is valued higher than any other aspect of my life. Time is viewed in economic terms because it is so precious. I can spend time, save time, waste time, manage time, lose track of time, make time, and even invest time. Time is defined by our culture and it has also defined me; however, I am curious to hear about what time is without this structure that I have placed around it! Time controls my life yet people who have different views on time control their time. Is this necessarily a bad thing to be owned by time, and is it necessarily a good thing to have control over time? Is there a middle ground? What would this look like?
I think that certain time aspects of our life need to be controlled and others can be controlled by time. It is what we do with our time that shows what we value the most. Something that I have been considering through all of this is how come I make a time for God? By utilizing a time for a “quiet time” with God I have categorized my day according to my will and not His! Considering the fact that God is supracultural, it could be reasonable to think that God is okay with this set aside time. Yes I do value this time, but how much of it is given according to my view of its importance. What I mean to say is that how come God doesn’t have all of my day (and even then I’m calling it my day because that is modern culture at its finest)?
I am curious as to how other cultures view time and how they manage their day (or does the day manage them?). Is time management even a concept they consider? Sure every culture understands the concept of management, but how highly is management valued? I understand the differences of how time is valued for meeting someone for coffee, but I’m more interested in how time is structured (or if structure even exists). What types of cultural influences affect the use of time in non-modernist cultures? Take a hot climate culture who is very people oriented for example. They will value time with others much more highly than modernists will because of the benefits of the relationship (and even if they are late to a meeting, the meeting may last hours through conversation).
