1440

A wise man once told me about 1440. No, it's not about a year in history. Imagine if you hit the lottery... an unusual lottery that would pay you $1,440 dollars a day for the rest of your life. The only stipulation is: if you don't spend that entire $1,440 in that day, you lose whatever you don't spend. Most of us would find a way to make the most of each dollar. Assume you would have to give a third of that to the government "for our own good." The rest is yours to spend.

Each of us gets 1,440 minutes in each 24 hour period. If you are fortunate enough to get 8 hours of sleep each day, that's a third of those minutes. So, you have 960 minutes each day. What do you do to make those minutes count? Once they are gone, you don't get them back.

So, why am I talking about this? It is distressing when someone wastes those precious minutes. Oh sure, lots of us waste time everyday... or at least spend time doing something we enjoy that others may consider a waste. Today, I took my dear old Mother to her kidney doctor. We had an appointment. We sat for 2 1/2 hours before the doctor came in to tell her that all her tests "looked fine." Seems to me that he could have had one of his nurses call us, and it wouldn't have been necessary for me to take Mom out in the snow, drive across town, pay for parking in a nearby ramp, run to the doctor's office to borrow their wheelchair to get Mom from the car, and then sit... with outdated magazines that have been handled by people with who knows what sort of vile diseases!!

Mom thinks this doctor can walk on water because he gave her advice 9 years ago on how to improve her kidney function. Since that time, he has her come back about 6 times each year. After the first few months, her reports have always been the same: everything is fine. She frets up a storm before each visit, imagining all sorts of bad things. The only bad thing I can come up with is the time and money pissed away on each visit. She tells me that the wait is generally around 2 hours.

The last time I went to a doctor and had to wait more than an hour, I walked out. I told his office people, "You have my cell number. Call me when he's ready to see me and I will be here in less than 5 minutes. I know his time is valuable - so is mine."

I equate someone wasting my time right up there with someone stealing my money. Except, you can get more money... you will never get that time back.

Mom was delighted with her "everything is fine" report; no way she feels that time was wasted. I have to wonder how she'd feel if the report hadn't been the same as always.

On the really bright side, it did get her out of the house after a month in the nursing home. Not my idea of an "outing," but her rehabilitation continues and this is simply another step in her improvement.

We don't know how many hours any of us have left... darn shame to waste any of them.