Timelessness

I found my wristwatch today, but for the past while had lost it, and notice how much more at ease I feel because of it, and just how extensively I use it. When I have my phone on me it's a little inconvenient, as then I have to get out my phone, and deal with the slowness of Android, and the inconvenience of a touchscreen, but it's even worse without my phone - then, I am without the time altogether, and I feel lost because of it.

It was difficult even in the simple matters, without my dear watch. I work from home some days, and want to put on some food in the oven at about eleven-forty, so it is ready for twelve or a little after when I take lunch. Yet I go to get a drink, and do not know what the time is - is it eleven-twenty, in which case I cannot put the food on to cook yet (lest it be burnt when I eat lunch) - or is it eleven-forty, in which case I may? Yet working this back, the reason why it must be eleven-forty is as I desire to take my lunch at twelve. There is no reason why eleven-fifty cannot be when I have my lunch, except that tradition, and the division of time, have instilled into me that acceptable times for taking lunch are between twelve and two. Anything outside of this range is outside of tradition, and so I cannot in good spirit do so. It echoes the sentiment of Plautus, who remarked:

The gods confound the man who first invented
This measuring time by hours! Confound him, too,
Who first set up a sun-dial—chopping up
My day into these miserable slices!
When I was young, I had no dial but appetite,
The very best and truest of all timepieces;
When that said, 'Eat,' I ate—if I could get it.
But now, even when I've the chance to eat, I must not,
Unless the sun be willing! for the town
Is grown so full of those same cursed dials
That more than half the population starve.

I've thankfully my wristwatch back now, and I can return to my measured life once more, safe under the dominion of my master. No food for the man ten minutes before his time.