Dear Diary, How much difference do a few minutes make?
How much difference do a few minutes make? From a photon’s perspective, a pure particle of light, there isn’t a such thing as ‘a few minutes.’ It may bounce around for billions of years in incredibly dense matter, trying to escape and then travel through space to reach our eyes. However, because it travels at the speed of causality, the ‘c’ in e=mc2, time does not exist. It took billions of years for us, but nothing at all for it. A few minutes didn’t make a difference.
How much difference would a few minutes have made for George Floyd if the officers released their lethal oxygen depriving force on him sooner? A citizen would have lived, and the tinderbox may not have been lit until another day. To an anxious person, how long is a minute? To a person caught in a fight or flight mode, trying to figure out how to secure a beneficial outcome when likely most variables are out of their control, a minute is forever. Unlike the photon where the minute doesn’t exist, the anxious minute occurs but in the slowest, most agonizing way we can perceive. How long was eight minutes and forty-six seconds to a worried man pleading for his life, when most if not all variables were out of his control? How much difference would a few minutes have made but life and death?
How much difference would a few minutes have made to someone who just missed the train, walked into a critical meeting after it started, or spoke before they thought and received immediate consequences? The anxious minute feels like it never ends, the photon never has a minute, but the guilty minute lasts forever. The guilty minute is something that has already occurred but replays on loop in the mind of the offender. The guilty minute may morph into anxious minutes while the fear of consequences takes hold, or hopefully be released through forgiveness. How much difference would a few minutes have made to people under the burden of guilt? Those few minutes could alter a day or the course of their lives.
A few minutes may be the difference between decisions being made a certain way or perhaps at all. A few minutes may be the difference between someone sealing off their heart or being relieved at the last moment. A few minutes may be the difference between a remarkable opportunity or a missed one. A few minutes may be the start of someone’s great day, and you took the time to cause it. Time is inherently a limited resource for us living beings. We create our value and meaning in how we spend our time, who we invest our time in, and what we decide to do. Somewhere along the way, we’ve accelerated the pace of life to a point we’ve forgotten how to live it.
It is, believe it or not, ok to not build Rome in a day. It is ok not to have eighty-hour workweeks. It is ok to stop and smell the roses. The endless march towards late-stage capitalism and the enrichment of the owner class has been going on since the invention of agriculture, and it shows no sign of slowing any time soon. It is ok not to get caught up in it; it is ok to be content with “less.” Spending a few minutes more on self-care makes a big difference, as does the attention to the tasks in the present. Whether you are tending your garden, baking bread, or writing someone a note, the details matter, and they will be noticed.
Take some time to look up and see what took billions of our years to arrive, and about what countless generations wrote stories. Take the few minutes to think about what you sincerely want to express and invest your time doing. Try your best to have fewer anxious and guilty minutes while being mindful those around you are having theirs. Be forgiving, of yourself and others, as none of us are perfect, and forgiveness goes a long way towards not only healing but bridge-building. Remember, while a few minutes may seem insignificant on the grand scale of things, we live life on that scale all day every day. A few minutes continuously changes the world, ensure you make a difference with yours.