Taking Back Time, Dancing with Time, & Attention Worship
Wednesday Wisdoms for February 5, 2025
Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.
This month we’re exploring the theme of Time.
Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom, our 3x3 Newsletter where I distill worldly advice for better living with 3 quotes, 3 observations, and 3 questions.
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Taking Back Time
🤨 Quote
“That the present is all we have to live in. Or to lose.”
Marcus Aurelius
Source: Meditations 12.26
Observation 🧐
Time is always moving and there is always someone willing to take yours from you.
This is the entire backbone of society: I will exchange money for your time.
But the world does not care about an exchange of money for time. At some point in each of our days, the world will intervene and try to take our time from us.
You schedule a virtual work meeting—the WiFi goes out.
You take the train to work—it breaks down.
You sit at the airport—your plane is delayed.
Our time is taken from us by situations completely indifferent to our lives—and we don’t even think about it.
But we don’t have to accept this.
We fight this by always having our own things to occupy our time in the event we need it.
WiFi goes out and unable to attend the meeting?—I was needing to update my to-do list.
The train breaks down?—I had calls to family to catch up on.
The plane is delayed?—I have my book to read.
The world can only snatch our time away if we’re unprepared for when it tries to.
🤔 Question
How do you manage time when something unexpected comes up?
Dancing with Time
🤨 Quote
“Rather than struggle against time and waste it, let’s dance with time and redeem it, because we don’t live long when we try to die, we live longer when we’re too busy livin.”
Matthew McConaughey
Source: Greenlights
Observation 🧐
We all hesitate, it’s a part of the being human. We imagine in our heads how we’ll act when presented with a situation and then when it arrives, we hesitate.
Time will keep moving whether we choose to act or not.
This means we have a choice each and every day: do we seize it or let it slip away?
We don’t want to wake up at sixty and ask where’d all the time go. Life moves in one direction and it’s up to us to see it through.
We have a decision to make: start living and take control of our lives or relinquish it to the sands of time and hope for the best.
It’s when we can learn to lean into time, to enjoy our living, that we dance with it and avoid the pitfalls of regret that so often are found on our deathbeds.
🤔 Question
Rather than fight time, how do you work with it?
Beneath the paywall this week we explore the wisdom of David Foster Wallace. Click below to support and get access.