By David Magallanes / Guest contributor
On a recent afternoon I happened to be in Solvang. I was the typical tourist, looking into all the store windows I passed, classifying the items I saw as useless (to me, anyway), interesting, “kitschy,” or fascinating.
It was this last category that drew me into an establishment specializing in mystical items. I don’t believe so much in the command of crystals or the power of pyramids. But I find these kinds of stores intriguing, and they tend to pull me in, much as a sun pulls comets into its fiery mass. I might well reek of incense when I finally leave, but I don’t flame out like the comets.
Once in a store like this, I behave much as if I were in a library letting myself be guided by my natural interests. Which is why I gravitate toward the book section. And in a mystical store, the books are endlessly enthralling. I find them exploring dimensions that most of us don’t normally consider as part of our existence, but that indeed add more texture to our lives than we dare imagine.
However, this time around, one of the books that made my hand reach for it was about time management, one of my favorite topics of study: “How to Live On 24 Hours a Day,” by Arnold Bennett. It made for interesting reading as I perused it and found that in fact it could well have been my “grandfather’s book” on time management. Well, sort of. The book was originally published in 1908. Come to think of it, my grandfathers had not yet arrived in this country by 1908. In any case, Mr. Bennett does not, obviously, talk about the use of technology to help us manage our lives.
So then why did I actually purchase a book that at first glance would appear to be a total anachronism?
Because the wisdom I was gleaning as I stood there reading was timeless. Granted, some of the details are dated and for a different place. For example, he talks at length about how a man waiting at the London train stations, and who works on Saturdays at the office, can best use his time.
At one point he employs a racial slur that would provoke book burnings and massive street demonstrations — not to mention an epic Facebook rally — were his book written today. Apparently his slur was considered “acceptable” in “polite society” at the time. But his penetrating insight into the mystical nature of time and how it intersects with our lives is ingenious and remarkably perceptive (in my most humble opinion).
Mr. Bennett writes in a style reminiscent of other self-help authors of the early twentieth century — Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie, for example. They wrote of concepts that are not so popular in our current politically correct and massively medicated world. They “told it like it is,” pulled no punches, and got to the very root of the reasons for our malaise, our unhappiness, our disquiet, our outright depression.
They — these masters of time — told us what we must do to attain any measure of happiness in our lives. The philosophy they expounded was nothing new; it is in fact scattered throughout the ages: ancient Greece, Rome, and Mexico; the New Testament from the ancient Middle East; in the teachings of countless religions.
What they all try and teach us is that our happiness and our use of time are inextricably related. If we weave our lives from the very material of our souls, then we will be hopelessly happy. On the other hand, if we fritter away our lives without concern for our use of the precious gift of time that is bestowed upon us at the very beginning of our lives, then we will experience the epidemic of despondency and frustration and anger that surrounds us. If we fail to heed the teachings of these messengers, then we will relinquish our power to control our own lives and we will tend to medicate ourselves just as the pharmaceutical corporations and our very doctors (though not in all cases) encourage us to do when our emotions deviate from the contentment that is our legacy.
I’ve written before in this column that the key to our happiness is the quality of our thoughts. Mr. Bennett takes this philosophy one step further by suggesting that the quality of our thoughts — and hence our lives —relies on our ability to train our minds to obey.
Obedience is not a popular concept in our adult existence. Yes, we had to obey when we were children, and we may be expected to obey the law now, but the word was expunged from wedding vows long ago (and it wasn’t the husband promising to “obey”), and “obedience” to bosses sounds infantile (though for the sake of job security, we’d best “obey” the chief, however we want to disguise the word). Nuns and priests are expected to keep their vows and sign on the bottom line that they will obey their superiors. But to train our mind to “obey”?
Yes, as if it were a wild horse that needed to be brought under control and “broken.” Hog-tied and brought into submission, as it were. Not a pretty image, though it’s hard to picture how a mind is tackled and brought to the ground as it struggles to break free. But for mastery over our own lives, for our brain to help us get what we most want in life, it must be taught to serve us—not distract or sabotage us. It must be convinced that it will do our bidding, that it will go only where we tell it to go.
Mr. Bennett explains: Efficient living, living up to one’s best standard, getting the last ounce of power out of the machine with the minimum friction: these things depend on the disciplined and vigorous condition of the brain. The brain can be disciplined by learning the habit of obedience.* (p. 75)
Once we have learned to make use of this marvelous machine with which we came into this world, it is then a matter of harnessing its horsepower, if you will, and mapping our plans onto the mystical river of time in which we exist, to create a life that satisfies us, that aligns with our deepest principles and values, and that gives us just a glimpse of eternity.
* Bennett, Arnold. How to Live On 24 Hours a Day. New York: Dover Publications, 2007 (Dover edition); originally published 1910.
— David Magallanes is embarking on a speaking and writing career whose purpose is to promote and facilitate the attainment of the American Dream. As an optimistic American of Mexican descent and an educator in college mathematics, he brings a unique perspective to issues of our day. He may be contacted for speaking requests or for commentary at adelantos@msn.com