Volume 2 · The Discipline of Hours · Essay 173

Norma Look-alike Competition

Norma Look-alike Competition is a lens. Nothing in the world changes when you pick it up, but quite a lot becomes visible.

What this concept offers is a pause — one extra beat between what happens and what you do about it. Civilisation, someone said, is measured in that beat.

It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.

Every January, the gym fills; by March, the regulars have the place to themselves again. The calendar changed nothing. The people who stayed simply stopped asking the calendar for permission.

Time is the one currency the Reserve Bank does not print more of. Carry it lightly. Ideas, like umbrellas, are useful only when actually opened.