Time is Money?

here's a semi funny story for you followed with some reflection. my dad is a man who's paid all of his dues in the construction industry and has done quite well for himself due to endless years of working his tail off. my mother (and now myself and husband) works for my dad and has since day one. side note - i have learned so very much from watching my parents work together, live together, travel together and still love each other after so many years. anywho. so when i was a young child i spent many of my days going to work with my parents before i started school or during school breaks. one day in particular, my dad took me in the field with him and taught me multiple life lessons as is his fashion. this day my dad decided it was time to truly teach me the golden rule: time is money. that's right, i was taught that the golden rule was time is money. that day he would take me to supply houses and would ask me what the golden rule was in front of the workers and i would reply with what i had learned. they would all hee haw and commend me for my newfound knowledge and we would go on to the next place to showcase my talent.

a little while passed and a sunday came around and i found myself as a small child sitting in a sunday school class. our teacher decided that this sunday, we would focus on the golden rule. well, i was already too knowledgable about this topic, as we all know, so i chose to share that i already knew quite well what the golden rule was: time is money. i will never forget the look on my teacher's face and how confused i was when i learned that that was NOT the golden rule.

so i fast forward to now. i'm near 30 years old and i feel sometimes that the first golden rule i learned is forever engrained into my being. it is virtually impossible for me to sit and just sit without having to be doing something with my hands. i am constantly making something or scheming in my head how to make a dime or perfect my craft or designing a new piece of my creations in my head. it goes back to that obsessive state that i'm constantly in. i can't stop it. i enjoy being productive though and am glad that i am this way. i live to create and to embetter myself and to constantly grow and change throughout my life. but, is the phrase 'time is money' my driving force for that? i may never know.

time is money, though, is generally a phrase used to describe americans and their lifestyles. i attended a faculty meeting the other day and another teacher discussed the importance of integrating cultural knowledge into the classroom. she had come across a website noting ten general cultural rules to america and one of them was 'time is money'. we are constantly on the go, forever evolving, progressing, moving, being, eating, talking, buying, fighting, loving and so forth. is this such a horrible thing? if i look at it from my cultural perspective, no it's not. but if i step outside of my bubble and view our time is money mentality from another cultural perspective, it could be viewed as horribly negative. we don't take the time to breathe, to love appropriately, to cherish a sunrise or sunset, to walk outside. or do we? it all depends on your perspective, your experiences and your priorities.

but what do i know?