Are you worried about Killing Time today?

“Well, I’ve got some time to kill today.” We have all heard and used this expression. It means that somehow we have some unexpected free time. It is time that does not need to be accounted for or time when nothing is scheduled. Many of us wish we more often had time to kill. It is a very interesting thought. I am going to kill some time. What measures do I take to kill time or how does one go about killing time. There are lists you can find of time killers. In airports, one finds that arcade games are often used simply as time killers. However, more often today, one finds people doing their work on the kiosk type internet connections available in airports. In Japan, Pachinko parlors are a major way to kill time. But can we really kill time?

How does one kill something which does not exist? If it does exist, then is time alive? Most people would say that time is not something living or biological. However, the expression seems to indicate that time is something that has a life of its own and that we can kill. With time in such short supply, it might seem immoral or unethical to kill it. It is certainly not illegal. I have not yet heard of anyone going to jail for “killing time.” But with time in such short supply, maybe killing time should be a crime. How could anyone have the audacity to kill something that is so precious and limited? Maybe we should declare that time is an endangered species and put a moratorium on “killing” time. Religions could declare it a mortal sin to kill time. We could create police units designed to ferret out people who kill time.

We could stop killing time, but then life might not be very much fun. Killing time is actually one of those breaks that we all need to take. We manage, coordinate, plan and schedule too much of our time. Time to be killed may just be one of the last pleasures of modern life. Do you ever kill time? Do you spend enough time “killing” time? Do you worry and feel guilty because you could put the time to better use? As the song goes, “Don’t worry, be happy.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all could find more time to kill and worry less about being productive and managing our time?