Time Eats Us All in the End

Or- If I could turn back time

John Dailey

Sep 28, 2023

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Think.

Kronos swallowing his child Posiden by Rubens

Perhaps the earliest personification of time was the Titan Kronos. He was the child of Uranos-the Sky, and Gaia-the Earth. Uranos descended to Gaia (his sister) and mated with her every night producing the Cyclops and many-headed monsters that he imprisoned in Tartarus. Eventually, Gia convinced their son, Kronos to castrate, and then overthrow Uranos.

But Kronos was convinced that he would meet the same fate as his father so he went with the gameplan of eating his children. The metaphor is pretty clear that time will inevitably eat us all.

Kronos’ plan worked until his wife, Reah decided to give him a stone wrapped in a blanket to eat in order to save their son Zeus. Eventually, Zeus returned to battle his father and rescue his swallowed siblings, overthrowing the Titans to become the King of the Gods.

The idea of being swallowed by time wasn’t limited to the Greeks. The motif of the hero or heroine being swallowed appears in story and myth, often as a symbol of it being time for a change that they are unprepared for. This is the case with Jonah and the whale, Pinocchio and the whale, Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, etc, etc.

We have all felt the weight of time closing in on us, even Willy Wonka.

In order to start crawling our way out of Kronos’ mouth and start getting our time back, we need to follow the advice of Tim Ferris who said,

“If it’s not a hell yes, it needs to be a hell no!”

This motto simply recognizes that there will always be more opportunities to do things than there are hours in the day. There are some things we shouldn’t shortchange ourselves on like sleep and exercise if we want to extend our healthspan. Then there are things like jobs that need to be prioritized if we like eating and having a place to put our bed, but the rest of it is largely up to us.

When I was writing my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, I had to be miserly with my time. I could write before and after work and on weekends. In order to meet my deadline, that meant saying no to a lot of things I wanted to do. I had to keep the bigger picture in mind.

So, start taking back time. If it’s not a hell yes, make it a hell no.