Time is Money

The other morning someone tuned into the CNBC business channel on the TV in our lounge at the hospital. That's an okay choice for me in that at least they aren't waxing cynical about one political party or the other and they pay damn little attention to the presidential election politics being thrust upon us so early. In short, I can usually ignore it and stick to a newspaper or magazine.

Usually; but not today. Today they had a viewer interactive question that queried: which do you prefer, being disconnected while in flight or, time is money, stay connected? Their words, "time is money." If I remember correctly the split was about 60/40 with time is money, stay connected being the leader.

Years ago my Dad would occasionally travel with a group of men to meetings via train. I remember his telling us how they would have a room they could open up, sit at a table, and work while en route. I also remember him telling us how they would play cards, relax in the lounge car with beer or cocktails, and arrive the next day fresh and ready to go to meetings.

With all the advances in travel and communication we have eliminated all opportunity to be disconnected; to take time or to stop, to pay attention to the nonbusiness world around us. There is talk, serious talk, of bringing out a supersonic business jet. Text, talk, and internet, we are constantly connected and en route as quickly as possible. Sad part is we don't make this effort to create more leisure time in spite of any claims to the contrary. It's done out of a desire to do more, to get more, and to make certain someone else doesn't beat us to the punch.

As connected as we are I fear we are losing all connection to place. We're distracted by a constant stream of electronic communication to the exclusion of all awareness of our surroundings. When traveling, you see people who seem hardly able to find a reason to look up from their device, whether on the ground or at 40,000 feet. People don't recognize where they are or who they're with, only the need to respond to the last communication. And in that task most don't even utilize the wealth of language, just abbreviations.

To travel by train from Chicago to New York required an overnight. Same thing LA to San Francisco. The available conveyances ranged from utilitarian to the spectacular and each afforded a wealth of contact with people and an inescapable awareness of place. It was that awareness of others and one's surroundings that made for a real human experience, an experience in which you had to look up, see who was sitting in that lounge or at that dining car table. And out the window you saw the industry, the towns, and the countryside that made this land. At the end of your journey you knew where you had come from and with whom. You had traveled as part of a social landscape while out the windows you had surveyed another. As such, I think it made for better citizens.

As well connected as we are today-- as fast and seamlessly we go from city to city, state to state, country to country, the whole while without ever having to hangup the phone-- we're no better off. I'd argue we may not even be as well-off as that businessman relaxing with his evening paper and a cocktail as his train pulls out of Chicago bound for New York-- circa 1949. Time isn't money, it's time; life's most precious commodity.