No less than eight times this week, I have opened by notepad app and jotted down an idea for a blog post. My draft posts number nearly 30. I have So Many Ideas. Sadly, sometimes I fail to carve out enough time from my schedule to write an actual, coherent blog post. Full-time work. Single mom to three teenagers. One special needs kiddo. Home repairs. Life. Eat something. Attend school activities and clap for son. Read books. Get enough sleep or suffer the consequences. Headache. Netflix. Brain no thinky now. Wait, when did we run out of food?
Today’s post was going to take Elder Oaks’ Gen conf talk on the Constitution and talk about separation of powers.
I also have a review to write about Laurie Lee Hall’s memoir about living as a transgender woman.
I’m almost finished with a book about Jonestown and want to post about that too.
I have enough drafts about the nature of God to write an entire book about theology.
So today’s post is a discussion thread about the things we would do if we had enough time and mental energy. Would you write a novel? Write a master’s thesis? Start a community garden? Spend more time with your neighbors and friends? Open a business? Found a charity? Bingewatch Netflix? Spend the day at Dairy Queen with your friends?
Wheat & Tares 
I have a special needs son and my only real job is to keep him alive and healthy. When he is at his day program, I actually have the time to pursue my interests, so the question is not hypothetical. And the answer is, I am building a website (HREPlaces.com) that is of interest to (1) any genealogist with German ancestry who is frustrated at having to use modern place names that are inappropriate for the time of an event, and (2) anybody else who wants to understand what the heck is going on in those maps of the Holy Roman Empire after the 1648 Peace of Westphalia.
lastlemming: I did check out the new website, and I must say it is amazing. On behalf of everybody who may need to research the German geography of a few hundred years ago, this is an amazing compilation. Thank you.
I used to wish that my X-Men superpower was stopping time. I loved watching the movie with Bill Murray in it Groundhog Day where he repeated the same day over and over. At one point in the movie he spends a good chunk of time paying a lady to teach him how to play piano. Then, he masterfully just plays an entire song perfectly. So yeah, if I had unlimited time (or could stop time), I would freeze it until I could play all the greatest piano songs that I never will be able to find the time to master because of my competiting time demands.
Time is life’s true currency.
raymondwinn1941,
Thanks for checking out the website. The feedback so far has been positive, but extremely sparse. Please spread the word.
I’m with Jacob L on the idea of time as currency. That’s a useful way to look at it.
By way of chuckling, a few months ago, I decided to bingewatch the ’80s series Moonlighting on Tubi. Only 5 seasons, and no season had a full 22 episode run. So, shoulda been a relatively quick thing. Just barely, finally finished as I kept getting sidetracked and easily distracted elsewhere. Hilarious to me that I’m having trouble accomplishing even my TV leisure goals these days. I do like to tell myself that it’s a good thing I’m making less headway on my hobbies these days, and generally doing better at meeting my obligations as a grown up. Like, perhaps the frustration so well-addressed in Janey’s post is evidence we are doing well at adulting
If I had more time? I’d get back into playwriting and get something written and revised to be worthy of production
During the pandemic when we kind of quit doing anything social I thought about the fact that our lives were similar to being in prison, but just a little more geographically spread out. We had our patterns: home, office (maybe), store, home, gas station, home. I listened to E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops at that time, in which everyone basically just lives their lives in a room surrounded by stimulating entertainment, and they are afraid to interact with other people which is seen as contamination. It was written in 1909, but sure felt like the reality we were living. I haven’t really shaken that feeling that I am basically living out the rest of my life now filling my time with whatever I can before I inevitably die. To me, that’s trying to stuff as many ideas and well written character sketches from classics into my brain as I can. To what end? Probably just my own momentary enjoyment and then the candle will blow out, and it will be for naught.
I’ve become much more inward focused, but I do miss being more sociable. Every so often I force myself to be around other people. I reach out to my kids throughout the week, to my siblings maybe once a month or so, to friends even less often. Every day I ride my bike which sounds like I’m “touching grass,” and while it’s physical activity and I won’t give it up, it’s also very solitary. I can listen to Ezra Klein or Trollope or a history podcast while I’m breathing the air, feeling the sun on my skin, and the breeze on my face.
What I’ve found in my almost 45 years of life is that I value time more than money. On what I do with this time… think and write. Non-fiction. I’m currently writing a book about US independence, in a global context. It has been slow, but steady. I’ll see how far I get. And see if any publisher accepts any manuscript I produce. But I enjoy it and that’s kind of the point. I’m not sure I’d be too happy running a business or a charity. It just doesn’t fit my personality style.
Last Lemming, you wrote on how you’d study more on the Peace of Westphalia. Honestly that is one topic that absolutely fascinates me. It seems commonplace, especially in International Relations Theory, to regard the Peace of Westphalia as the beginning point of the nation-state. I simply don’t see it. I think it is a seriously flawed theory. But the 30-Years War and the Peace of Westphalia are fascinating nonetheless.
I remember my 20s being a time when I thought time was unlimited. Now in my 50s I realize that not only is my remaining time limited, but my quality time with healthy body and mind even more so. Maybe 15 years before I decline to the point I can’t climb a mountain. I wonder how well I’ll handle old age and it scares me.
I really only have three things I want to do with my time: 1 spend as much time with my kids as I can 2. See as much of this planet as I can 3. Climb as many mountains as I can. My dream is to summit Denali which is no joke. One thing I fear more than time is regret. I wasted so much time in a culture I knew wasn’t right. Oh how I wish I had that time back. I just have to be careful so that my FOMO doesn’t overpower the joy of right now.