This was great. I have never heard of Momo, but it sounds like a book I should be getting and reading with my seven year old. The second quote in particular was fantastic. Could have been the central quote for one of my essays on the formalisation of children's sports.
As someone who works part time, only three days a week, I also have found a shifting in the seasonality of our lives, be that sleep patterns or energy levels. And Friday, our first day of the weekend, is a glorious rejection of clock time as we allow ourselves the freedom to decide slowly, always slowly, how we want to play that day.
I think, similarly, one of the things that I enjoyed about pub shift work earlier in life is, though you are bound to the clock in the sense of turning up for your shift on time, due to each shift starting at different parts of the day you never feel tuned into the adult work week in the same way. Each day offers you a different part of it to be free from the constraints of work. The monotony of the 9-5 is broken up by having a couple of mornings that you can do with what you want and a few evenings to socialise.
That’s a great point about pub work. Even if you worked the same hours as a 9-5er it never felt so regimented and constricting. It was something you did rather than a part of your identity (I’m trying to achieve this level of serenity when it comes to writing as a job).
And yes, I think any people would be better off on three days a week if they can afford it. Quite radically downsizing your life to get there is worth it in my experience. There’s something hugely psychologically freeing about working only 3 days for the, and having 4 for yourself, versus the standard 5 and 2 tradeoff.
I’m also pretty confident you and your 7 year old will love Momo. Get back to me if you do give it a go and let me know what you think.
Tom, It wasn't until love brought me into living the meaning of the apropos Wordsworth's quote. I intently looked into my daughter's eyes, they were literally wide with wonder (a funky image just popped into my mind... I didn't simply sit and star at her, hey, hey). Trying to see life & experience life as she did - discovering it, living it - was liberating to me. It did take great effort to peal layers off where my mind was blocked (still doing it). The reward far outshined the effort. She didn't have blinders on, or years of implanted paradigms through which to live. Life was brand new. A physical parallel are cataracts on eyes. Once they begin, they thicken over time. If left alone and not taken off, they get so thick blindness results. Blindly, I had become quite blind. If something, or someone, doesn't jar us out of that state, the result can be so deadly, can cause such emptiness - reflecting again on momo. Lynn
Nice post. I don't feel good saying this that I am also in some ways in the clutches of men in grey. I used to enjoy my time and made enough time for fun and leisure a year ago. But now it's all gone. I am moving towards that productive self which gets the job done but is rarely happy.
Your post is a kind reminder for me to fight this and control my own time. Thanks a lot and best wishes. 👏🏽
I heard my calendar weeping when I was reading this.
I remember almost time-free childhood when apart from school there was nothing scheduled . Then we learned that “time” skill as with every year life was becoming more time constrained, sadly. Now “Mastering time” / “time management” seem quite ironic activities. Should it be “mastered by time” / “managed by time” instead? I wonder
(Great stuff as always sir, the thoughts have been successfully provoked)
This was wonderful, as usual. I have to read Momo to break down my Fomo. Is it any wonder that our sleep and attention spans have been degraded, which may have begun the moment rail-time derailed natural rhythms of sleep (such as waking up in the middle of the night to before going back to still restful sleep), while our minds are packed into puppy mills for grinding for some hustle, for "moar"?
Now that I search, I don’t think I see the clockbait (I’ll leave that!!) article that first caught my attention, but lots of the conventional press covered it. There’s also a skeptical article in the Atlantic that I found interesting.
Love this piece. I avoid wearing a watch because I checked it obsessively. Our modern way of life is crazy in lots of ways. It's a dance between time and the resources to enjoy that time.
Thanks. And watch avoidance makes a lot of sense, although I suspect for a lot of people that wearing a watch is a way to mitigate constantly checking their phone for the time and then falling into scrolling. More ways in which our modern way of life is crazy.
Gosh, you keep bringing up things that resonate. Haven't thought of 'Momo' in probably 25 years. I remember attempting to read it, and so desperately wanting to grasp what was going on, and I couldn't. Same with 'Sophie's World,' which I as a teenager sensed was "profound." I'm going to add 'Momo' to my reading list for this winter. In fact, I just walked by our bookshelf and saw 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' and wondered to myself why I haven't read any in years. Do any of you in here read fairy tales now and then?
Yeah, I can tell you Momo holds up really well. Sophie's World I can't speak for as it has been years and years since I read that, probably a similar time frame to your last Momo reading.
And yes, I suspect there are a few of us in the group who are into Grim(m) fairy tales and other oddities.
Wonderful!!! Your story reminds me of a "time" when my 3 year old daughter was wanting to simply play with me. She didn't NEED anything, just play. I was almost totally consumed with my work responsibilities, 24/7. Yet, I adored her & endearingly loved her. Being 41, work had been my paramount focus. Here's the "Catch 22" - spending time (ahem) with her on her terms was something she had to teach me. She taught me how to play, simply play, like in Momo. Thank you, I love reading your words of life! Lynn
That line of Wordsworths of 'the child being father to the man' is deeply true. Children are great teachers in the art of simply being. Many (all?) saintly figures are praised for their childlike simplicity and sense of life as joy and play. Glad you enjoyed this piece, Lynn.
Well said! I stopped wearing a watch over 20 years ago when my father died and as I've grown older, I've also grown nearly completely resistant to other people's ideas of how to fill my time. My days are my own, though it does require a degree of will, awareness and self-assurance to continually resist.
Thanks for the comment, Monette. It's always inspiring to hear from people who 'get it' and are fighting the good fight against the proverbial Men in Grey.
This was great. I have never heard of Momo, but it sounds like a book I should be getting and reading with my seven year old. The second quote in particular was fantastic. Could have been the central quote for one of my essays on the formalisation of children's sports.
As someone who works part time, only three days a week, I also have found a shifting in the seasonality of our lives, be that sleep patterns or energy levels. And Friday, our first day of the weekend, is a glorious rejection of clock time as we allow ourselves the freedom to decide slowly, always slowly, how we want to play that day.
I think, similarly, one of the things that I enjoyed about pub shift work earlier in life is, though you are bound to the clock in the sense of turning up for your shift on time, due to each shift starting at different parts of the day you never feel tuned into the adult work week in the same way. Each day offers you a different part of it to be free from the constraints of work. The monotony of the 9-5 is broken up by having a couple of mornings that you can do with what you want and a few evenings to socialise.
That’s a great point about pub work. Even if you worked the same hours as a 9-5er it never felt so regimented and constricting. It was something you did rather than a part of your identity (I’m trying to achieve this level of serenity when it comes to writing as a job).
And yes, I think any people would be better off on three days a week if they can afford it. Quite radically downsizing your life to get there is worth it in my experience. There’s something hugely psychologically freeing about working only 3 days for the, and having 4 for yourself, versus the standard 5 and 2 tradeoff.
I’m also pretty confident you and your 7 year old will love Momo. Get back to me if you do give it a go and let me know what you think.
Cheers.
Thanks for this, Tom. I am not familiar with “Momo” somehow; it sounds intriguing.
I often dream about what it would have been like for people to play, tell stories, make crafts, etc. in such different conditions in the past.
Me too, me too.
I’m no judge of your body of work, but this was probably the essay that had the most profound instant effect on me, personally. Thank you, Thomas.
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it. However I would lower your expectations for the next one!
Ebb and flow. They can't all be profound musings on the meaning of time.
Haha, it certainly seems that way! Although this latest piece is coming along now.
Tom, It wasn't until love brought me into living the meaning of the apropos Wordsworth's quote. I intently looked into my daughter's eyes, they were literally wide with wonder (a funky image just popped into my mind... I didn't simply sit and star at her, hey, hey). Trying to see life & experience life as she did - discovering it, living it - was liberating to me. It did take great effort to peal layers off where my mind was blocked (still doing it). The reward far outshined the effort. She didn't have blinders on, or years of implanted paradigms through which to live. Life was brand new. A physical parallel are cataracts on eyes. Once they begin, they thicken over time. If left alone and not taken off, they get so thick blindness results. Blindly, I had become quite blind. If something, or someone, doesn't jar us out of that state, the result can be so deadly, can cause such emptiness - reflecting again on momo. Lynn
Nice post. I don't feel good saying this that I am also in some ways in the clutches of men in grey. I used to enjoy my time and made enough time for fun and leisure a year ago. But now it's all gone. I am moving towards that productive self which gets the job done but is rarely happy.
Your post is a kind reminder for me to fight this and control my own time. Thanks a lot and best wishes. 👏🏽
I heard my calendar weeping when I was reading this.
I remember almost time-free childhood when apart from school there was nothing scheduled . Then we learned that “time” skill as with every year life was becoming more time constrained, sadly. Now “Mastering time” / “time management” seem quite ironic activities. Should it be “mastered by time” / “managed by time” instead? I wonder
(Great stuff as always sir, the thoughts have been successfully provoked)
This is exactly it. Much of life is like one of those 'Russian Reversal' jokes. In Soviet Russia television watches you etc.
Although it's 'The Modern World' instead of 'Soviet Russia'
In the Modern World time manages you.
In the Modern World email sorts you.
In the Modern World watches wear you.
And so on.
Glad to hear the old thought provoking has proven successful.
This was wonderful, as usual. I have to read Momo to break down my Fomo. Is it any wonder that our sleep and attention spans have been degraded, which may have begun the moment rail-time derailed natural rhythms of sleep (such as waking up in the middle of the night to before going back to still restful sleep), while our minds are packed into puppy mills for grinding for some hustle, for "moar"?
Funnily enough, I was going to get into the whole polyphasic 'two sleep' thing. Maybe it deserves its own piece?
Thanks for the great comment, Edward.
I was thinking about that as well and have wanted to know more about it since the things I have read about it have been pretty vague.
I’ll do a little digging, see if I can unearth anything worth discussing…
Now that I search, I don’t think I see the clockbait (I’ll leave that!!) article that first caught my attention, but lots of the conventional press covered it. There’s also a skeptical article in the Atlantic that I found interesting.
Thanks I’ll give all of that a skim and see if I can find my own angle on it all…
Love this piece. I avoid wearing a watch because I checked it obsessively. Our modern way of life is crazy in lots of ways. It's a dance between time and the resources to enjoy that time.
Thanks. And watch avoidance makes a lot of sense, although I suspect for a lot of people that wearing a watch is a way to mitigate constantly checking their phone for the time and then falling into scrolling. More ways in which our modern way of life is crazy.
Gosh, you keep bringing up things that resonate. Haven't thought of 'Momo' in probably 25 years. I remember attempting to read it, and so desperately wanting to grasp what was going on, and I couldn't. Same with 'Sophie's World,' which I as a teenager sensed was "profound." I'm going to add 'Momo' to my reading list for this winter. In fact, I just walked by our bookshelf and saw 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' and wondered to myself why I haven't read any in years. Do any of you in here read fairy tales now and then?
Yeah, I can tell you Momo holds up really well. Sophie's World I can't speak for as it has been years and years since I read that, probably a similar time frame to your last Momo reading.
And yes, I suspect there are a few of us in the group who are into Grim(m) fairy tales and other oddities.
Wonderful!!! Your story reminds me of a "time" when my 3 year old daughter was wanting to simply play with me. She didn't NEED anything, just play. I was almost totally consumed with my work responsibilities, 24/7. Yet, I adored her & endearingly loved her. Being 41, work had been my paramount focus. Here's the "Catch 22" - spending time (ahem) with her on her terms was something she had to teach me. She taught me how to play, simply play, like in Momo. Thank you, I love reading your words of life! Lynn
That line of Wordsworths of 'the child being father to the man' is deeply true. Children are great teachers in the art of simply being. Many (all?) saintly figures are praised for their childlike simplicity and sense of life as joy and play. Glad you enjoyed this piece, Lynn.
Well said! I stopped wearing a watch over 20 years ago when my father died and as I've grown older, I've also grown nearly completely resistant to other people's ideas of how to fill my time. My days are my own, though it does require a degree of will, awareness and self-assurance to continually resist.
Thanks for the comment, Monette. It's always inspiring to hear from people who 'get it' and are fighting the good fight against the proverbial Men in Grey.
Thanks Jack, I appreciate you taking the time to let me know!
I don't, I'm afraid Jack. Speaking to camera and video editing and all of that aren't my forte at all. I'm better with the written word.