Where Do You
Find the Time?

BY Jessica Francis Kane

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It’s occasionally been found in speeding taxis and Paris hotel rooms. Alpine meadows and mourning doves are rich in it, though can be hard to find. Forget about fountains and rainbows, they’re myths. Rarely it falls from geese flying north. Sometimes sunlight on water contains trace amounts. Check in the attic and under the peonies, but it moves fast and is hard to catch. Now and then it has been stolen from babies sleeping on airplanes. From girls reading in parks. From headlines and editorials. If you never take a water aerobics class, you’ll have more time than some. Give up all hope, and you might get a little more. Say no. Smile. Read. Read even when you should be sleeping. That time counts double. I-95 is a gold mine, though you’ll have to fight others for the time found there. Take the bus. Follow the river. Don’t be afraid to be late. Read poetry. Poetry gives time back, but most people don’t know it. Never watch television. Movies are fine. Documentaries are better. Sometimes, read novels in translation. Just consider it. Don’t remodel your kitchen. Don’t remodel anything. Don’t even think about it! Hire a babysitter, or not. Make do. Let your spouse help. Stay calm. Go to New York. Leave New York. Again, never take a water aerobics class. Don’t get a dog. Decorate minimally, including holidays. Maintain no position on Halloween costumes or children’s birthday parties. Use gift bags. Shop rarely. Spot clean. Keep a notebook. Copy. Borrow. Mimic. Steal. Never offer to be class parent. Volunteer elsewhere, if you must. Do not scrapbook. Avoid cooking. Bake once in a while. Rewrite, repeat. Listen to music. Have a drink.

If you do all this, one day you might find a package on your doorstep. Open it carefully. Inside will be time, tied in bundles of a thousand, smelling of jasmine. Congratulations! It’s all yours. Now hide it well.

From McSweeneys.

Holiday season always make me ache for family. After returning from this adventure, I opted not to journey again to join my immediate family for the usual festivities. Maybe a mistake. But honestly I realize that I’m super fortunate to have family and extended family that spans the globe. Literally. Brothers and sisters and cousins and step brothers and aunties and uncles and mothers and fathers and those peoples sisters and brothers. In America many of us tend to isolate ourselves from our family, forgetting, or downplaying the importance it has in our lives. Sometimes we get worked up over how they treat or don’t treat us, arrogant in our defiance of following the family way, or resentful that things aren’t the way we think it should be. We are all guilty of that. But ultimately, we are making our way, and deep down that family connection ties us together as a human race. These photos are of my Nepal family. Some of them anyway. Hopefully I’ll see the German family some day soon.

Another fine example of dedicating oneself to mastering the craft of creating something and creating it to the best of your ability. As I sit in Hong Kong reflecting on my journeys thus far, spending a day shopping looking for something original, hand crafted, and mostly finding big brands, knockoffs and tons and tons of “inspired by” products its apparent to me that we, Americans in particular, but humans as a whole, have an opportunity right now to regain the old ways of taking pride in creating something, slowly, meticulously and expertly. The process of doing this is spirit enriching for one just oneself, but for everyone that touches that thing. What I found most remarkable about this beautifully created video is not just that this man has dedicated his life to making a simple thing like bread and is doing it so amazingly, but that he is sharing that craft with others, and those other people have not copied his formula but instead, have taken it and made it their own through their particular circumstances. That’s incredible and stunningly inspirational to me. I hope it is for you too.

Thank you Dossier for posting this. Thank you Tartine for doing this.