Quakers and Time

Ryan Holiday writes:

People take their most precious resource for granted. They guard their property, they’re stingy with their money and then they just fritter away the only truly non-renewable resource they have–their time! And fritter away other people’s too!
The only explanation is that we’re just too close to it. We were born into a world where people act like they’ll live forever. We entered a workplace culture where people attended stupid, time-consuming meetings–multiple times per day–and never gave it a second’s thought. So we have failed to question it, failed to rebel against it, failed to resist     the tyranny and the injustice and the incomprehensible buffoonery of  the age we live in.

I certainly think that Old Chatham committee meetings are timely and appropriate, but many Quaker meetings aren’t—or if timely, there are so many of them that the mind is boggled by a seemingly infinite number of educational and protest opportunities.

Of course, Friends should be well-informed and should participate in activities designed to improve the human condition; but, in order to make life manageable and somewhat peaceful, it’s necessary to say “no” to many requests for our time. One vision of Hell would be an eternal, boring committee meeting while Heaven would be various Quakers and people of faith gathered around the throne of God.

~ Richard Russell