How Many Hours of Your Time Everyday Are Free Time?
We often complain that we always have no time to do something because of different commitments like work, family and household chores; that life is too short and we can’t do everything when needed and often times, as time passes, we see our physical decay to our dismay. I often hear men who had just have their first baby to their wives that they could no longer play video games because they have to take part in rearing the bundle of joy, which is rather depressing because it doesn’t have to be that way. While new mothers might be adept at juggling tasks every day, we men still enjoy the fun of video games and a little bit of outdoor activities. We’re used to being outside after all. I could barely relate to that statement because I haven’t have a child (or a girlfriend yet) but yet, I also feel that time is too short for me. Despite that we were only allowed to work for only eight hours every day for five days (save that there are no overtimes on weekends), I still feel the shortness of time. I work for eight hours everyday and I sleep for eight hours everyday; that’s two thirds of my daily waking life. What will remain is the eight hours were wild tasks would appear like the time transitioning from work (took an hour usually), dinner (took an hour), washing dishes (took an hour), transitioning from doing those wild tasks (took an hour or more) …oh wait….wait…if I count how many hours I have been doing this, sleeping, working and doing some wild tasks, eight plus eight plus one plus one plus one plus one….equals (surprised Pikachu face) TWENTY HOURS? How the hell did I did those things for twenty hours? There are approximately twenty – fours a day, twenty – four hours to do something for ourselves so that we can still live, grow and hone ourselves to be good while taking care of others; our family, colleagues and our crushes. But still, it staggering for me that I only have four hours to do anything I want, and most of my wishes we’re sometimes time – consuming but enjoyable to do. Reading. Exercising a bit. Thinking what might be my future. Thinking of people that matters you most. Weird thoughts. Selflessness. The what the fucks. I sometimes transition to do another different task after doing a different task just like the director Steven Spielberg keeps alternating on directing popcorn flicks and critically acclaimed drams in a year, that’s basically one – two punch for him. But it sometimes becomes exhausting that I have to do different things every time that I end up not writing an essay like this for days, or not exercising for weeks and just sit in the couch staring at a turned – off television, though I like to slack – off sometimes. All work and no play make Johnny a dull boy they say and it’s true. Making yourselves productive just for the sake of it and discriminately exerting your energy on worthless things (hobbies beware) will definitely burn you out in the long wrong. You have slack off sometimes and relax and you don’t have to do these things. You might be thinking that you can learn to pluck a guitar, become skilled at computer programming, becoming a writer, doing some engineering stuff, and building model cars and buses in such a short time will be achievable but believe me, you can’t do that. You can realistically master at most two things at a time and you have to practice them in distributive fashion. You can learn to pluck a guitar and hone your computer programming skills at the same time but try juggling too many things at once and you will end up not learning anything, even if you have a lot of free time in this ongoing COVID – 19 pandemic. Oh…I forgot, my declaration that we have four hours of free time everyday might be less because I forgot the work – from – home arrangement. If we were in normal times, the free times we would have is much less than four hours. In my case, after taking into account my preparations in going to and from work, I only have less than two hours left, which is too short for me, considering that I have to eat at home and rest after. This is disconcerting.
Remember when we’re still kids and we didn’t care about the time because we we’re so joyed at playing different games? How simple was life back then. Now as we grow older, time seems to fly past us while we ourselves are stuck at what we are doing and that’s scary. Stuck at your job? That’s a valid point. You don’t feel that you are prospering because something in yourself is not improving? No doubt, they feel that within ten – kilometer radius. Some of us are even pressured as they get near into their thirtieth birthday because they felt they haven’t done much to do get something nice. Most of us promise to ourselves that before we hit thirties, we now have a house but life has a way to burn those wishes to ashes. Why do we have to suffer much to get what we want? Are these sacrifices even worth it? If you are going to commit to get something you want, are you ready to give your “all” for years so that you can have something you want, like a family, a house, or riches? Are we bargaining to God telling Him that “if You grant me my wishes, I will praise You”? God knows what we want but probably not necessarily those things we want and God might be flabbergasted about you. We act like merchants who want to get a good deal and probably we don’t deserve the best things God can offer because of our sinful nature and let He Nature control humankind. Our nature of being self – centered and our propensity for one – upmanship in search for riches and good life leaves us a dog – eat – dog world. Sometimes I’m afraid of high school reunions because by the time they will come back for a reunion, they would tout themselves as successful in relationships, successful in careers (some of them could achieve both, especially women) and generally has achieved something in their lives that yet have to be enjoyed by ordinary classmates like me. All I see are just noisy successes.
Why God allow us to achieve something in a rather long time? Why most of us weren’t blessed with intelligence so that we could use our talents to improve ourselves in short time? God could create geniuses and prodigies if He wanted to but why did He settle in creating us with at most a hundred IQ points? God doesn’t say but this got me pondering. Assume that we are single. When we are in our early twenties, we are in our most fertile stage, have just started our careers for few years and this is the time where most of us are starting to get into relationships and marriage but most of us generally doesn’t have the resources yet to raise a family in that age. When we hit thirties, we have acquired a higher pay and established ourselves in industries but something’s amiss. We look old and look like dads to younger generation. If you’re single and you’re in mid – thirties, your chances of getting into a relationship are getting worse and there are studies that show that men become “invisible” to younger women after a man has hit an age of thirty – seven. When we hit forties and you have acquired the maximum salary attainable in the chosen profession but you are practically invisible to younger generation. There is always a chance that a forty – year old person will get into a romantic relationship for the first time but it is now too slim. We keep on extending our times before settling down to advance our careers but it doesn’t mean that we have transcended out biology. What is the point to all these statements? I think, in my opinion, this is the realization that God might be onto something for us aside from ourselves marrying to each other and wasting our lives in pursuit for worldly desires. I remember reading a Bible account about the signs of our Lord Jesus Christ’s second coming. In Chapter 24 of the gospel of Matthew, the disciples asked our Lord Jesus Christ what are the signs of his Second Coming and the end of the world and one part of the passages strikes me; it was in the Matthew 24 verse 36 – 41, which says:
“36No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. 39And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.”
We are too busy improving to get noticed by others, pampering ourselves and doing everything we can for an exchange of temporary happiness that lasts a few years that we forgot that we barely have enough time in this world and we should direct our energy to things that would please our Lord and ourselves. What are those things? For me, being a gift for others. Being kind to others and the ability to help others if we have the capability to do so. The world will be a less gloomy place.
Do you have enough free time for yourself?