Article January 2, 1978 Issue

Take possession of time

LOWELL N. CANNON

If time were an animal, what would it look like? Ask a roomful of people this question, and you would probably get a whole menagerie of answers—a hummingbird, a slow-moving snail, a chameleon.

For most of us time, like the chameleon, seems to change its color rapidly according to the setting. If we are early for an appointment, we look for ways to fill the time. When in a hurry, we try to find shortcuts. Obviously it is not just the prison inmate who is "serving" time. Each of us might well ask himself or herself the question, Do I have time, or does time have me?

The renowned scientist and inventor Thomas A. Edison made excellent use of his time. It was not unusual for Edison to go for days with only brief naps while he was developing such useful inventions as the microphone, the phonograph, the electric light.

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