1sec, 1 min, 1 hr

How long is one second?

Is it the 24 hours that it takes for the earth to rotate divided by 24, 60 and 60? That used to be the standard, but then we realised that it kept changing and so we made it some fixed period of oscillation of the Caesium 133 atom. Which is not terribly meaningful.

How about this: 1 sec is the time it takes to notice someone across the room. It’s also the time it takes to wink at them. It’s also the time it takes for them to smile back at you (if you’re lucky). It’s also the amount of time your heart stops when that happens.

How long is one minute?

60 seconds you say? So does that mean 60 times the oscillations of the Caesium 133 atom? Or the rotation of the earth divided by 1440?

Or how about this: It’s the time taken to ask for her phone number (because it’s not as easy as it looks on TV). And for her to write it down. And for you to make an awkward closing statement. To watch her as she leaves the room.

How long is one hour?

That’s the amount of time it takes to think about what to say before phoning her. Or to type and then retype the first text message. Or to have the first phone conversation (or to hang up). Or to have the first cup of coffee with her. Or to say goodbye in the parking lot.

One second, one minute, one hour. They’re not just measurements of time but moments. And moments have value and currency. And those moments add up, and eventually become your life. Max Lucado says life is almost like having a whole bunch of loose change in your pocket. The 5c piece can be one sec, the R1 a minute, and the R5 an hour.

The thing is that we’re all given the exact same amount of change in our pockets, as we all have the same amount of time in a day. There’s one difference though, we’re all using different types of currency.

Some people have zim dollars in their pocket, because they waste the 1sec, 1min, 1hr, and all those moments are worthless. And someday when someone asks them to pull out their moments of time they will dig into their pockets and haul out a big bunch of those notes, and then realise that it’s pretty worthless, and they’ve wasted their time.

But other people have stronger currency. Some have Rands, still others have US, some have Euros. Some have Kruger Rands. For those people, when they pull out their change one day the value is massive. Like the moments of their lives have been meaningful and are worth something, something valuable.

And so we should work on making our moments count. Every second, minute and hour, so that all the small change might have some value one day.

(Part 2 next week: The stock market crash)