All things being equal

For most of us most of the time, life is a series of back to back meetings. No time for focused work.

The gaps in between, where they occur, are merely time to prepare for the next meeting. The majority of meetings shouldn’t have been scheduled at all. They are a waste of time. Of very limited time. The only true commodity – unrecoverable, unrenewable energy. Precious. And yet, so underrated, to the point of complete neglect.

As it is slowly running out, it is easy to think the tank doesn’t ever get empty. Until it’s empty, and there’s nothing further to be done about it.

The biggest trick is to delude ourselves that there are more important things to do, as though everything else is ceteris paribus. All things being equal. But they are not. Time is not equal, nor is opportunity, context or people.

It is not surprising that the oldest philosophical insights come in an antinomical form. Everything is permanent, immovable, while everything is nevertheless in motion. The stars are fixed, but panta rhei, all things flow, nothing stays the same. At the same time. The major traditions of thought have long zeroed in on the real target. Will we pull the trigger? Will we keep the tension between the two poles, never giving up on either? Will we subscribe to both without fear of contradiction?