Time Capsule

By Al Horn

How many people complain about not enough time to do the things they need to get done? How many people complain about having too much time on their hands? In this world of instant gratification what we need is a company that can produce little pills that would help us to manage time.

One pill would not be enough. You would have to have a variety of diminutive caplets to handle all of society's needs. Think of Alice from that old rock song. One pill to handle the stretching of time and another to make it contract as desired. Occasionally, you would probably want something that does nothing at all just to keep in the habit of taking your daily dose.

Personally, I wouldn't mind having a pill that would make my workday go by faster. It's not that I don't like my job, I just feel that ten-hour days leave little time for anything else. Of course, the best time would be just before my boss shows up for his daily lecture. This capsule would also double for those retirees that are sitting around with lots of time on their hands. A concept I have only heard stories about but have never personally experienced.

Another handy pill would be one that expands my time here at the computer. Even if it merely allowed me to speed up my own time sense and typing abilities. Imagine, getting three or four thousand words out in an hour. Just before dinner or just before bedtime.

Sleep! There is something I would like to learn to live without. A pill that would let me lay down for an hour and wake up with the equivalent of eight hours sleep would make the inventor rich for life. Of course, it would have to be for adults only. Having my grandchildren awake and climbing all over me during the wee hours wouldn't do me much good. At the same time it wouldn't do me much good to be awake if some activities would just wake those same children up. Everything comes with a side effect.

The really hard part would be coordinating your pill use with other people. Some might want to take their sleeping pill in the late evening while others would wait to morning. What about interaction with the business community? All of a sudden there would be all these people out doing their shopping in the middle of the night because they didn't have time to do it during the day.

What about the night workers who wouldn't be spending half the day trying to get the sleep they needed? And it's not just shopping getting done. There would be an increase of leisure pursuits. You would need a larger workforce to handle the increase in volume.

With my luck, I would get to a shop to purchase some thing and find it closed because all of the workers took there speed up pills early and had left for the day. I guess I would have to go home or look for another open business. What if they all closed early? What then? Of course! I would just take a different pill and everything would be all right.