I must admit, I am not a punctual person.
Anyone who knows me, knows this. They will tell you that I try. I try very hard. Often, I can be On Time to Very Important Meetings. I am always on time for Trips on planes and trains. Mostly I am On Time for Work. I live in America, I have lived in Germany, I am born to parents with German ancestry, but somewhere along the way, the cultural values that I should have picked up I only did by accident (and trying really hard). Like “Time Is Money”, and “Always Be On Time” and “Being Late is Rude” and “Saving Time is Important” – none of these ever made complete sense to me, although some more than others. So you want to know what the one thing I was most excited about when I decided to visit Kenya? Time. A friend over there explained that for Africans there are only about four parts of the day:
Morning: when the sun rises to about noonish or “Lunch Hour”
Lunch Hour: around noon to around 3pm
Afternoon: after Lunch hour to when the sun sets
Night: after the sun sets
For example: “tomorrow morning, we will go to visit the school – I’ll drop you off and pick you up for lunch hour, then in the afternoon we can visit some of the families in the parish.” (translation: how many hours did I just talk about? 4 or 10? does it matter?)
Yes! An actual measurement of time based on something real! Like letting old clothes just fall away and slipping on fresh, clean ones, I had rediscovered Time. Full to the brim, my days were anything but slow, and I could live in the moment, knowing that there was a plan but it was entirely flexible and maybe not that important. Maybe it’s more important that you know and trust the person you’re doing business with than that they always live according to the clock and the schedule. Maybe industrialization took away some of our understanding of genuine time. Maybe the Grey Men have us all duped into thinking that Saving our Time in a Time Bank is the way to live our lives most Productively. But since when are our lives about productivity? As Christians we’re supposed to “bear fruit” not “make a product” – when did we forget? Do we even know the difference?
There is a scripture about redeeming your time…living in the present moment, trusting God and not worrying… For awhile, I’ve had a philosophy of “kairos time” which comes from the Greek words for time. (I’m sure there is a famous novelist like Proust or philosopher like Augustine who said something similar first, but until I can quote either accurately, it’s my own idea)
One word for time is chronos (chronological time) and one is kairos (loosely translated as “God’s time” or “time outside of time”). Chronos is the stuff we are stuck in while we wait for home, but kairos is something different altogether. It’s those moments when you realize that you have stepped outside of time into eternity. When talking with a friend becomes not just a couple of minutes to listen but an authentic connection with another human being. When prayer becomes not just the 45 minutes you spend in Mass but opening yourself to communion with the Divine so that you become more whole. When mealtime is not just the food on your plate but the richness of texture, taste, smell of good food and of course, the company of friends. That is “time outside of time” and that is what I was gifted with in so many ways by getting just a small taste of African time.