Wednesday 18 February 2009

Between a pineapple and time

I was peeling a lovely tiny pineapple in the downstairs kitchen of our building and said to my colleague laughing: this pineapple is more skin than pineapple! He said, well, you could peel it differently. You can cut the skin thinner and then the pineapple will get lots of “eyes”, then you can take those eyes out one by one with a knife.

I thought of me taking the little eyes one by one and remembered we used to do that when as children we were served a round slice of pineapple with the borders full of “eyes”. We used to bite them off and eat the rest of the piece. And then he said: but it takes a lot of time and time is more valuable than pineapple… time is money! And then he walked away.

I thought… time is not more valuable than a pineapple! - It depends for whom. The people who spend their days shelling the kernels from the maize cob to sell them per pounds in the open market came to my mind. – For people who have little money to spend in food and a pineapple is a weekend delight, time will not be more important than a pineapple, the pineapple deserves the time spent in saving as much of its pulp as possible.

Then it hit me… “time is money” The sole thought of such an affirmation made me angry. Time is not money… money is paper with some given value. Time is infinite. Time has been here before we did, before money did and will be here after we are gone. Time was here before we realized its existence and will be here when we actually understand its nature (if we ever do). Time is not money, time is time, time is eternity.