A few years ago, Justin Timberlake starred in a move called “In Time”. It was a futuristic movie about a society where the currency was time, not money. Every person had a chip implanted in his/her arm, with a “bank” of time in the chip. The time in the chip could be exchanged for goods and services.

When the time ran out on the chip, the person with the chip died.
—–
The movie examined what would happen in a society where time was used as currency. What would people do for an additional day, or week, or month of life? What would you do if you were down to your last 24 hours?

In the movie, just like in real life, some people stole other peoples’ time. And just like in real life, in the movie, some people gave their time to others. Except in the movie, giving away some time meant giving away some of life.
—–
I remember watching the movie, and being moved by the parallels between time and money. We live in a society where we act like we have all of the time in the world, and act like money is a precious, limited resource.

I suppose money is limited, to some extent. But there is a lot of it out there, and I probably have enough. Not as much as I necessarily want-but probably as much as I need.

I am starting to have an awareness that I don’t have as much time as I would like. Here is an example: if I live to the age of 95 (no guarantees about that), I will live about 34,675 days. That would mean that I have about 14,600 days left.

I spent more than $14,600 on my last car. I’m kind of frugal, so I was reluctant to part with that $14,600. I spent a lot of time (read that phrase again) thinking about parting with $14,600.

What do I think about parting with my last 14,600 days? Do I treat my time with as much care as I treat my money? I need to remember that if I give away some of my time, I am giving away some of my life.