Plenty of Time

Martin and Rubber were sitting on Martin’s back porch.  It was a hot summer’s day and they were sipping ice cold drinks.  They watched Martin’s B’s humming around their hives.

“So,” Rubber said after a while “how did you like your holiday in the Big City?”

 

“I enjoyed it very much.” answered Martin.  “The City is a great place to visit, but I do not think I could live there.”

 

“Really?  How so?”

 

“Well,” Martin began “There were many things to see.”

 

“Yes.” said Rubber, taking out his pipe.

 

“…and there were many, many things to do.”

 

“Indeed.” said Rubber, packing his pipe with tobacco.

 

“…and so many people to meet…” Martin continued.

 

“That there were…” said Rubber, lighting his pipe with a match.

 

“Of course, there was all the different food, and more donuts than I have ever seen in my life!”  Martin’s eyes glazed over for a moment, recalling the multicoloured ranks of donuts in one bakery Rubber had taken him to.  It had been like a morning in heaven.

 

“But I think there was too much of everything.”  Martin said suddenly, coming back to the present.

 

“Ah…” Rubber said. He puffed on his pipe, and waited.

 

“People had so much food that most of them had forgotten how hard it is to grow it.  They no longer know how valuable it is.  Did you know, so many times it seemed people there would rather throw perfectly good food in the garbage than use it to feed someone who did not have enough?”

 

“That is true.” agreed Rubber “I have seen that myself.”

 

“…and there are so many things to have there that many people no longer knew the difference between ‘need’ and ‘want’.  Everywhere there were signs telling them how much they needed things.  Silly things.  That was very strange.  People wound up having so many things that they had to look after, find a home for, repair or replace.  It seemed like a full time job!” Martin concluded.

 

“Really?  You think so?” Rubber’s pipe had gone out.  He lit another match.

 

“I do.  And you know?  It was the same with the things to do!  Everyone had so many things to do and they worked so hard to do them that even the things that were supposed to be fun just made them stress.  Something is wrong when you have to play so many games that none of them are any fun.  That is very weird.  Do you know the worst thing though?”  Martin asked.

 

Rubber looked up, puffing his newly lit pipe and shaking out his match “Tell me the worst thing.” He said.

 

Martin leaned toward him and said quietly “It is the same with the people.”

 

“Whatever do you mean?” asked Rubber innocently.

 

“It is the same with the people.” Martin repeated.  “There are so many people there that most of them seem to have lost the value of people.  Hardly anyone seemed to know how valuable or hard a real friendship is.  They had so many people to choose from that someone could just pick a friend, and if there was some tiny, tiny little thing that went wrong, they just discarded that friend and tried to find another one.  They never fixed anything!  They never mended clothes.  They just threw them out and bought some more.  They never fixed broken things.  They just threw them out and bought some more.  If they found out a friend was broken, they just threw them out and tried to find another.  And everyone is a little bit broken.  No wonder so many of them seemed lonely.”

 

The two friends sat quietly.  Martin drank his drink, listening to his B’s.  Rubber puffed away on his pipe and leaned his head on the wall.  The sun was hot on his face.  He closed his eyes.  The air smelled of hay.

 

“There was one thing the City people did not have enough of though.”  Martin said eventually.  Rubber turned his head and opened his eyes.

 

“Oh yes?  What was that then?”

 

“Time.” answered Martin.  “Did you know, they have so little time that everyone is given a little Time Sharing Machine?  They called it a TSM.  If ever they want to do something, they have to type it into the TSM and the TSM would tell them if they can do at and when they can do it.  I asked lots of people if they wanted to have a donut and some coffee with me.  They would ask their TSM and then say ‘Sorry, I don’t have the time.’.  It would be very sad to have a machine tell you what you can and cannot do all the time.”

 

“It would.” Rubber agreed.  “And speaking of time…”  Rubber tapped his pipe on the step to empty the old tobacco “…it is time for me to go home.  Tahoma and I are going to cook up a big batch of C food.  Would you like to come over?  I have an old bottle of Port we could open after dinner…”

 

“Well…” began Martin “…I am not a very important person.  I do not have gold taps in my bathroom.  I do not have an important career meeting to go to.  I do not have lots of money and I do not own a million Things To Do.  But I do have plenty of time.”

 

Rubber laughed and slapped Martin on the back “That’s all we need!”

 

And so the two old friends strolled down the path to Rubber’s house, spending their time together…