Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of your life. ~ Michael LeBoeuf
This past week Buzzfeed reported British actor Benedict Cumberbatch had a suggestion for the photographers camped outside the BBC Sherlock set Saturday in Cardiff, Wales. As he exited his trailer, Cumberbatch hid his face behind a hooded jacket and glasses and held up a sign reading, “Go photograph Egypt and show the world something important.”
We might have different points of view on what is important, but we have the freedom to spend our time in our way, for example:
- Devote an entire afternoon to fishing with no catch to show for it
- Take a two hour walk with your dog in the woods
- Decide to pass the time on a rainy Saturday afternoon playing an online game
- Cozy up on the couch watching old movies
- Push your giggling toddler on a swing till dusk
To some, these might seem like trivial and unimportant activities, but who’s to judge when the decision of how to spend our time is ours. The assumption is that we are getting something out of it, whether it is relaxing or fun or bonding or engaging. What these activities have in common was the conscious choice to do these things simply because we wanted to.
In our celebrity crazed culture, we are vicariously living life through others, and at the end of the day have nothing to show for it. The reality shows, magazines at the checkout stands, and ‘celebrity news’ have become a feeding frenzy. But as Benedict Cumberbatch suggests, it is simply not important. There are other important things going on in the world. Time is the great equalizer and we all get exactly the same amount of time each day – 1,440 minutes per day, and 10,080 minutes per week. How will you choose to spend it?
We can stop the celebrity focused insanity by stopping the demand. Pure economics will cause the reduced demand to become a limited supply. And you can get back to more important things…like fishing.
What do you think?
Tina Nocera, Founder
