{"id":824,"date":"2020-09-03T17:24:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T15:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/?p=824"},"modified":"2020-09-03T17:24:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T15:24:45","slug":"timed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/timed\/","title":{"rendered":"Timed Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Henry David Thoreau<\/p>\n

Life has a way of showing us that some things and phenomena are more important than
\nothers. One such way is pain. In spite of our impossible quest to suffer less than previous
\ngenerations so that we can go about our daily life uninterrupted, I would risk a statement that we
\nare indeed fortunate to feel pain at various junctures of life. Pain forces us to notice something
\ninvaluable that is already in progress or about to happen. How often we realize that recurring pain is
\nthe only thing that makes us see our doctor: we would be clueless and careless if we did not
\nexperience it. The dearest groans of labor (Shakespeare) make the woman pay attention to the
\npivotal moment of life. Beset by fierce labor contractions, a woman brings a new human being into
\nthe world, changing the universe around her. She cannot shrug that moment off as inessential. She
\ncannot focus on other things or find a powerful enough distraction, as much she might wish for it.
\nThe process hurts and encompasses all of woman\u2019s cognitive and emotive universe. It demands her
\nentire attention.<\/p>\n

Pain puts us on the alert, but life and God (who created life) have yet another way of making
\nus aware of important phenomena. We start to pay attention when something requires a
\nconsiderable amount of time to develop or form. It is common knowledge that it is more time-
\nconsuming to build something than to have it destroyed. Let\u2019s delve deeper, though: even when
\none considers \u201cbuilding\u201d or \u201cbecoming\u201d on its own, not just in opposition to a potential destruction,
\none will quickly realize that many important processes or stages of our lives take longer than we
\nwould like them to. Somehow, it seems as if some things were meant to exasperate us and reveal
\nour limitations coupled with only-too-human impatience. So either we are slowed down against our
\nwill and take baby steps instead of big leaps, or we realize we need to revisit certain things in order
\nto make desired progress in life. The lengthy process can turn into a welcome transformation by
\nburning out our superficial approach or excessive self-confidence.<\/p>\n

One of my college friends once saw me as I was running across the college green on the way
\nto class. Patience was not my strength back then, I was in a hurry to get things done fast. My friend
\nwas a slow-paced artist, so he scolded me, \u201cMagdalena, will you ever notice the beauty of this tree
\nhere if you run past it so fast?\u201d I said, \u201cYes, I will simply have to run around it twice or thrice.\u201d This
\nplayful dialogue contained more grains of truth than I had thought.<\/p>\n

One such time-consuming processes that all of us experience is puberty and the path to
\nreaching a passable kind of maturity. It takes people a long time before they are comfortable in their
\nadult bodies. The process takes so much time for a reason. It involves the brain (perception and
\ncognition), the body (growth and reproductive organs) and the realm of values and emotions. When
\nthe great change is in progress, these components are not perfectly synchronized. I still remember
\nthat terrible feeling of insecurity in high school; I had to go to the bathroom all the time to check on
\nmy appearance. I recall my frequent infatuations and a myriad unsettling feelings as the connection
\nbetween love and desire started to emerge. These things take a decade or even more before they
\nsettle and form a harmonious whole. And even as adults, we are still likely to experience insecurity
\nor fall into incoherence of some sort, caught in the heat of the battle between the heart and the
\nmind. There are so many other invisible factors and circumstances involved. Even decades later, we
\nsometimes revisit that painful and glorious process of coming of age to understand ourselves better.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s put the uncontrollable dynamic of puberty aside and think about societal practices. It is
\nobvious that mankind has realized that the amount of time something takes matters. Many
\ninstitutions, such as universities, are built around the concept of long-term exposure to ideas,
\ncontacts and people. Less exposure or shorter exposure would not yield the same result. In theory,
\nyou could get a college degree within three months of non-stop instruction, provided you are a well-
\nrounded genius. Would it be worth anything, though? Even if it was possible to pump the same
\namount of information into a student\u2019s brain, most people would not support the idea of \u201cinstant
\ndiploma\u201d. It is because one needs time to process information accurately and to grow into a deeper
\nunderstanding of it. Absorption or memorization of certain facts and theories comes first. Later,
\nstudents are able to place whatever they know within a larger context. Afterwards, they develop an
\nunderstanding of different perspectives or interpretations, along with the benefits and tradeoffs.
\nFinally, as adults, they embrace their own unique viewpoint (or a vantage point) and commit to it.
\nThis process cannot happen overnight. If it is truncated, it ends up incomplete and does not give one
\nenough room for a full college experience (friends, campus life, academic challenges) or enough time
\nto experience a handful of failures to come face to face with one\u2019s shortcomings. Two months
\ncannot build a person\u2019s character the same way that four years can.<\/p>\n

In real life, a similar principle of timed exposure (and exasperation) holds true. We think we
\nknow something and we are impatient to get a things done, armed with what we know for sure\u2026.
\nand then the process takes forever and requires that we modify several vital elements on the way,
\nmostly those that have to do with our inflated self-image of someone who has things under control.
\nIt takes a lot of time for an individual to integrate their skills and values into the fabric of real life.
\nWhen families start to have children, they cannot predict all the challenges of child-rearing. The
\nprocess is much more complex and painful (but also infinitely more beautiful) than a bunch of ideas
\non parenting that we held on to when our babies were only five days old. I\u2019m not recommending
\ncynicism or an attitude of bitter derision towards our old selves, as imperfect as they were. I\u2019m
\ntalking about developing competence and humility, which inevitably place our original ideas in a
\nricher context without eradicating the beauty of our first dreams and plans. Simply put, it takes a lot
\nof time for an individual to integrate their skills and values into the fabric of real life.<\/p>\n

Whatever we start doing seriously, it turns out to be surprisingly (and terribly) time-
\nconsuming. But in the midst of that course contre la montre which is our life, a great mystery dwells
\nand gradually unfolds. The hard-earned experiences which allow us to develop a deeper
\nunderstanding of any single aspect of life pay off disproportionately, in eternity. The memory of
\nwhat we\u2019ve said or done lives on: things that have taken time and effort are surprisingly lasting, even
\npermanent. They matter long after they\u2019ve been completed, they echo long after we\u2019ve passed
\naway, which is especially true for those of us who have children or an audience to talk to or write
\nfor. What we leave as our legacy is there to stay, whether we want it or not. The impact of one\u2019s
\nlifetime, regardless of its length, points to a great responsibility for who we strive to be and testifies
\nto the importance of each human life, full of trial and error, love, hardship and perseverance.<\/p>\n

Many people who lived short lives left a lasting legacy. Quite a few of them were strangely
\nfocused on their work, as if they had foreseen that the time was short and whatever they did would
\nleave a visible imprint on many generations to come. Imagine, the music to whose composition they
\ndevoted three months (agonizing over the process, perhaps ) will be played for another two hundred
\nyears or even longer. Interestingly, this awe-inspiring law of permanence applies not only those<\/p>\n

whose talent was universally recognized, such as Dante or Beethoven, but also ordinary individuals
\nwho devoted their lives to building lasting and meaningful relationships with those around them. I
\nwould venture to say that this is one of the greatest differences between human and animal lives:
\nthe rich and time-proof fabric of human lives is incomparably more meaningful than that of any
\nother creature. We have potential and we use it, wisely or not, and we pass down the consequences.
\nI bet that you still remember your deceased grandparents in great detail: you could recall their
\nwords, their favorite sayings, their gestures, their accounts of wars they had to fight for things and
\npeople that mattered to them. These memories come to mind very quickly. Moreover, you might
\nrecognize some of their traits in yourself or you might even find yourself in the midst of similar time-
\nconsuming life battles. Their contribution to the world is also still visible. The people whom they had
\nhelped survive are still alive; the children they fathered or gave birth to are still around; their
\ndrawings still decorate the wall; the patterned linen they gave you for your wedding is still in your
\ndrawer; the flowers they had planted are now in bloom; the fence you had both put together,
\ninvesting both time and patience, still serves people.<\/p>\n

So will our lengthy battles of today. Let\u2019s wage them with patience and care.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(image: a clock from Dom Hipolit\u00f3w (Krak\u00f3w), photo credit: E. Litak)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. Henry David Thoreau Life has a way of showing us that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions\/828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}