Hi readers,
This morning I photocopied 27 pages out of The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman. The book is a study of current worldwide water use practices and includes some fascinating and terrifying observations observations about the general human attitudes towards water consumption. I want to read it with my IB Environmental Science class in some vague hope that the students will grow up understanding that water consumption is an important issue and problem in their lives.
I believe it will be a very worthwhile activity.
It took 25 minutes to make the photocopies.
Today, I chose to spend those 25 minutes relaxed, focusing on the task at hand and calmly thinking about the rest of my day. Some other teachers came into the copy room. We chatted. I even stopped what I was doing to let them copy some papers (they did not seem to share my Zen, meditative morning attitude towards the copy room).
It made me consider my relationship with time. I don't think I am always very nice to my time. For example, usually I would say that spending 25 minutes in the photocopy is a total pain in the ass and a waste of my life.
That is not a nice thing to say at all! My poor time. My poor life! Spent doing some dumb laundry list of useless, irritating tasks with no thoughts of satisfaction.
I live in a first world country, make a good salary and am surrounded all day by relatively interesting people (weird yes, but definitely interesting). I have the tremendous luxury of basically choosing how I spend my time. It is my choice to find value in the activities I pursue. Thinking something is "a waste of time" is an attitude problem, and a bad one.
This morning I photocopied 27 pages out of The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman. The book is a study of current worldwide water use practices and includes some fascinating and terrifying observations observations about the general human attitudes towards water consumption. I want to read it with my IB Environmental Science class in some vague hope that the students will grow up understanding that water consumption is an important issue and problem in their lives.
I believe it will be a very worthwhile activity.
It took 25 minutes to make the photocopies.
Today, I chose to spend those 25 minutes relaxed, focusing on the task at hand and calmly thinking about the rest of my day. Some other teachers came into the copy room. We chatted. I even stopped what I was doing to let them copy some papers (they did not seem to share my Zen, meditative morning attitude towards the copy room).
It made me consider my relationship with time. I don't think I am always very nice to my time. For example, usually I would say that spending 25 minutes in the photocopy is a total pain in the ass and a waste of my life.
That is not a nice thing to say at all! My poor time. My poor life! Spent doing some dumb laundry list of useless, irritating tasks with no thoughts of satisfaction.
I live in a first world country, make a good salary and am surrounded all day by relatively interesting people (weird yes, but definitely interesting). I have the tremendous luxury of basically choosing how I spend my time. It is my choice to find value in the activities I pursue. Thinking something is "a waste of time" is an attitude problem, and a bad one.
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