Communique #10 - Reflection on time and productive citizenship

Communique #10                                            04/07/2020                         [En français ci-dessous]

Dear SAFCAM Subscribers

Despite lockdowns, time cannot be locked down and stopped!

Time keeps vanishing or does it? It is a mistake to think time is going.

Time is not going. Time is here until the world ends. It is we that are ‘going’.

Time is infinite-forever. We only waste ourselves when we ‘waste time’.

We are finite. It is we who grow old and die. Time doesn’t.

As we look at 2020, we are gifted with an immense block of time:

12 months, 52 weeks, 366 days (since 2020 is a leap year),

8,784 hours, 527,040 minutes, 31,622,400 seconds. Half of it has been spent!

All of it is a gift from God. We have done nothing to deserve it, earn it, or purchased it.

Like the air we breathe, time is offered to us as a free gift of life.

The gift of time is not ours alone. It is provided equally to everyone to be shared out.

Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak –

every man, woman and child have the same twenty-four hours every day.

We cannot stop time, and there is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it.

Time marches on. We cannot bring back any fraction of time.

Our yesterday has vanished forever, and our tomorrow is uncertain.

We may look ahead at another half-year's block of time,

but we really have no guarantee that we will experience any of it.

Obviously therefore, now-time is one of our most precious possessions.

We can waste it. We can worry over it. We can spend it on ourselves.

Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in building the kingdom of God,

And make this a special year to remember.

The 2020-jar is still half-full of time! Nearly 16 million seconds still to 2021! 

A little parable. May those who have ears, hear it clearly.
Once upon a time on a farm, there was a little red hen

who scratched about the barnyard until she gathered quite a few grains of wheat.
She called all her neighbours together and said:

"If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?" 
"Not I," said the cow.
"Not I," said the duck.
"Not I," said the pig.
"Not I," said the goose.
"Then I will do it by myself.", said the little red hen. And so she did. 

The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
"Who will help me reap my wheat?" asked the little red hen.
"Not I," said the duck.
"Not part of my job description," said the pig.
"I'd lose my seniority," said the cow.
"I 'd lose my unemployment compensation," said the goose.
"Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread. 

"Who will help me bake the bread?", asked the little red hen.
"That would be overtime for me," said the cow.
"I'd lose my welfare benefits," said the duck.
"I'm a loafer and never learned how," said the pig.
"If I'm going to be the only helper, that would be discrimination," said the goose.
"Then I will do it all by myself," said the little red hen. 

She baked five loaves and held them up for her four neighbours to see. 

They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. 

But the little red hen said: "No, I shall eat all five loaves myself."
"Excess profits!" cried the cow.
"Capitalist leech!" screamed the duck.
"I demand equal rights!" yelled the goose.
The pig just grunted in disdain.
And they all painted "Unfair!!" protest signs and marched around and around

the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
A government agent came along and said to the little red hen,

"You must not be so greedy."
"But I earned the bread all by myself," said the little red hen.
"Exactly," said the agent. "That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. 

Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. 

But under our modern government regulations,

productive workers must divide the fruits of their labour

with those who are lazy and idle."

And they all lived happily ever after,

including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked:

"I am grateful, for now I truly understand."
But her neighbours became quite disappointed in her. 

She never again baked bread because she joined the "Party" and got her bread free. 

And all the radicals smiled.  'Fairness' had been established. 

Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed.

No one cared in fact as long as there was free bread available

Thanks to a few hardworking citizens who were creating,

using their time and talents productively, enough to redistribute to all.

God bless, have a great week, and don’t forget to check what’s new at www.safcam.org .

Camiel and Francois

A few more thoughts:

- Time does not spare that which is done without it.

- Those who do not take the time to do something properly will have to spend more time doing it again.

- It is better to arrive early than late; but it is better to arrive late than dead on time.

- Time is just like money. The less we have of it to spare, the further we manage to make it go.

- Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves.

- Time may be invisible and intangible, but it is a material good such things as possessions, health, success.

- The one who kills time does not commit murder but suicide.

- Today is ready cash – spend it well.

- If you have to kill time, work it to death – carpe diem!

- If people just did what they should, there would be no time to do what they ought not.

- People who take their time usually take yours too!

Sent to website subscribers on 04/07/2020