stevesunusual…music and more

Time is the trickiest business for us humans and as time presses on us and passes us by, we sometimes learn a thing or two about it. A decade or so ago, I garnered a ticket for turning right somewhere in Chicago where it was perfectly safe to do so, although an unnoticed sign prohibited it. After shelling out and a week of online traffic school, I learned a thing or two and was almost grateful for the experience. Hurrying to a destination rarely shaves off much time, and the times it causes an accident or ticket more than compensate for time saved while weaving in an out of traffic, treating each trip like a race between unspecified opponents on an unspecified course, or in tailgating or passing people only to cut them off or wind up right in front of them at a red light.

Sitting back a bit and watching the world unfold is more than worth it, in the end, and besides I can listen to (and sing) good music while driving, so what’s the rush? Haste does make waste, I constantly notice as I try to maneuver something in my apartment only to drop it. I have never been one to hurry. I was not especially eager to grow up or graduate from class to class. I spent an extra half-year, at least, at grad school phase two because I was comfortably working half the week, taking a small class load, and writing in my spare time. Never in a rush to marry for its own sake. When confronted with an almost incalculable span of time in fifth grade–what will your life be like in the year 2000–I produced something akin to normality, having a wife and kids and such, without much thought and certainly no plan or overwhelming aspiration. It just seemed how things would unfold, and that was fine.

Now, life sans hurry can lead to accomplishing nothing sometimes, especially when opportunities are not seized. On the other hand, life can be savored by looking around one’s self as time slips by. Delay is no friend either, and I have seen it these days with family, resistance to change, to facing reality, taken to dangerous levels. There is plenty of life left, and curtailing an activity here and there due to age or inability or what have you, well, there is no harm in that, and in fact it can be life-saving and life-improving.

My plan is to keep doing things, keeping busy, but not feeling compelled to rush into anything, and trying to better seize a moment when I can. There is value in holding my tongue and not acting, but more and more I note it is best to just say it and get it over with. No one is perfect at this, we are often off, but we can hone our skills as time passes by, however much our capabilities and ambitions may change. What is clear, though, hurry and delay can cause a lot of trouble and art is long.

Hurrian “Urkish Lion” and foundation document, Third Millennium BCE