Space, Time and Weeds

When you start looking at time and space as units along the same spectrum things start to coalesce into a unified view. It’s like looking at the picture of an old man and an old woman staring at each other and suddenly you see the young guitar player serenading the young lady. It’s obvious when you look at it, but it’s hidden until you see it.

We live in a modest one-story house on the outskirts of the city. At least it was on the outskirts of the city, 30 years ago when we moved in. Over the course of our time here the city has grown around us, changing the space we occupy. There are shopping centers and apartment buildings where there were fields of corn, beans, wheat, or just fallow land.

A new crop of McDonald’s, Aldi’s and Mobil gas stations. A global pandemic is no match for potential profit. I can’t remember what it used to look like, before the stores and acres of parking, car washes, quick oil change shops.

Adding all these things has changed the space completely. For one thing, even though there are more roads and they are generally much bigger there is so much traffic it takes longer to get anywhere. Of course, with all this urban explosion the roads are constantly under repair, which slows down traffic and adds time and frustration to any commute.

Anger is the constant companion of the potential shopper/diner/oil change recipient. Flashing lights and orange cones are a trigger. All that rage makes time drag, and it takes even longer. You can almost see the people in the car behind you seething with anger. “Why don’t you go?” It shows in their baleful glares, if you’re foolish enough to look too long in your rearview mirror.

Several years ago I made the decision to become a Zen driver, calm, flow of traffic, accepting the whims of the road and the company of my fellow travelers. I decided to enjoy the time I spent getting somewhere. It’s difficult when you are stuck watching a tractor crawl across the intersection and you feel the hot breath of everybody behind you, knowing they blame you as much as the crew of workers gumming up the works. I just ask Siri to play “Piano Man” by Billy Joel, (or something soothing and filled with comfortable references to life) look straight ahead and I’m at peace with the time and space I occupy.

I work in a warehouse, and for 9 months of the year, space is our biggest concern. “Where are we going to put all this stuff?” We have a guy whose main job for ¾ of the year is cramming stuff into every corner of the odd little 120-year-old building we occupy.

In late September or early October, holiday orders start to come in, and time is all we think about, “will this day never end?” Time becomes an evil, malicious entity and the minutes stretch into hours. On a few occasions, I think we might have gone backward in time, which probably saved the company a bundle in overtime.

Covid19 hasn’t slowed urban sprawl and it’s accelerated online shopping but it’s been hell on me.

I take up a lot more space than I used to and it takes me longer to do almost everything. I’m still not comfortable going to the gym so I decided to do yard work. We have a bumper crop of dandelions this year, a yellow-green carpet covering the whole neighborhood. I declared war. I spent two days last Saturday afternoon digging them up, disposing of them in a city-approved lawn and leaf bag.

Sunday when I got up and looked out the window there were more dandelions than when I started on Saturday. They were smiling at me, yellow faces gleaming with dew and sparkling in the early sun. Bloody hell.

So, I’m off today, digger in hand, coffee on the window sill, and you know what, I’m kind of looking forward to it. I had a friend who told me God didn’t take the time you spent fishing away from you, He added it to the end of your life. I think that might be true about yard work and gardening too. We only have so much time and we should enjoy as much of it as we can, and if we make our space a little nicer doing it so much the better. Essentially time and space are all we have, and we have to make the best of both.

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This post is republished on Medium.

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