Jazmine Miles-Long

If I had ten more hours in the day I would be in a different world. One where time had not been constructed. Where we still lived by the prompts of nature rising with the sun and resting in the dark. A day may not be a ‘thing’, perhaps instead it would be an experience, a feeling a collective passing. Time, which wouldn’t exist, would flow over us as we live our lives in rhythm with the seasons. Time was created so workers could check in and out. It was designed to make sure they were not withering away someone else’s time when being paid by the hour rather than per dead pig or sack of wheat. And suddenly time had a perimeter, you could waste it, watch it pass by slowly or fast. Now time can have regret, disappointment when an hour is stolen and nothing achieved. Why did we create such a cruel system that makes bird watching feel like time misspent or doing nothing feel like money lost. If I had ten more hours in the day I want to imagine I’d keep a clean house, learn the latin names of birds and read the books I buy but never have time to read. Make the artwork I dream of making, do a masters and a PHD. I’d like to imagine I’d be more productive living a perfect existence, making a mark on the world, doing all the things that could make me accomplished. But these wants are put within me by the construct of time. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have ten more hours per day to do absolutely nothing, guilt free. To spend it simply smelling the hair of my son or having my own hair stroked by my loved one. Or just looking at my dog who is old and won’t be there to stare at forever. I want to take time less seriously than I do. Find it less stressful when I only manage to achieve what I realistically can rather than what I expect of myself. To look back when my son is grown and to feel like I spent that time well with him not really doing much at all apart from being together.