How can we tell if our time has been well spent or if we are genuinely appreciating every second we have left on Earth? Whether we should care is a question that Rabbi Rami Shapiro answers.
Dr. Joel Bennett, author of The Connoisseur of Time, discussed how nothing occurs unless the circumstances are right for it to happen during our podcast interview. The concept struck me as intriguing and true. This is where I ended up.
There is no way I am in control of any of this because the ripening of the present depends on the ripening of the past, which depends on the ripening of prior conditions, which depends on the ripening of still prior conditions, and so on. Because an infinite number of happenings have already matured in earlier moments, I am actually just another happening that is ripening now.
Depressing? I don’t think so. Here’s why:
If you think you can become a connoisseur of time, you will devote a lot of time to becoming a connoisseur of time. If I am correct that you cannot become a connoisseur of time, then all this wasted time will ripen into frustration and even self-loathing. But if you know from the beginning you cannot will yourself to become a connoisseur of time, then you will relax into whatever is ripening at the moment, and that relaxing into the moment will in and of itself ripen into a relishing of the moment and that is what it is to be a connoisseur of time. So, if Dr. Bennett is right and you can become a connoisseur of time—you win! If I am right and you cannot become a connoisseur of time—you
