unleashing alternative futures: the time auditors (part 2)
18 Jan 2024“cedar.”
“great. i’ll see you soon.”
back rigid, i attempted to take a breath. and another. and another.
i eavesdropped on the conversation happening at the desk, looking for a distraction.
“dr. daveed has two recommended time advisors that i could set you up with. one takes a minimalist approach, the other a maximalist approach. which do you prefer?”
“i’m not sure, could you say a little more…?”
“of course, ma’am. a time advisor’s job is to help their clients determine how their time, as guided by the advice of a time auditor, needs to be focused on serving their community and society as a whole. a good auditor, like mr. daveed, will have already helped the client integrate their values with their life time allocations so the total amount of time the client needs to use in service of the society is already estimated. but that’s where the different stances come in. minimalist advisors, the more traditional type, do their work with an eye towards the least possible time one could contribute to get the society the client wants to live in. maximalists… do the opposite.”
“ahhhhh, that makes sense.”
“lovely. so do you have a sense of which way you’d like to go?”
“hmmmmm. well, since dr. daveed knows my values, i think i’d prefer him to determine.”
“i see. then let us get back to you sometime in the two weeks with a recommendation. is that alright, miss?”
she nodded and opened the coat closet next to the desk to grab her jacket. january wasn’t as cold as it used to be but it was still colder than december.
“thank you for your help.”
“you’re so welcome, ma’am. i’m glad your last few sessions have been so cathartic. they are the hardest ones, to be sure, but working through the emotions of how we spend our time and how little of it we have is the best way to not face it all at the end…” her voice trailed off.
maya knodded, pulled on her coat and walked past me towards the door. we made a brief moment of eye contact and i saw something in her eyes that i couldn’t quite place… my instinct told me she was holding something sad, very sad. i wondered how someone so young could be holding so sad…
[to be continued…]
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