No, this isn't about a person but items. Things many of us use and at times take for granted.
The watch for example. How we are used to living by the time others forced upon us. It's hard to believe there ever been a time people didn't care about the exact time. A stick into the ground was enough to tell how much sun (day) was left. I am sure a lifestyle like that didn't cause as much stress as many of us feel today. We have to be on time. Showing up too late is rude because you make someone else wait for you and time... Time is money, time cannot be wasted, shouldn't be wasted.
If I may believe this episode about the watch the monks forced a more precise time upon us and this all because they prayed nine times a day. Nine prayers should be done at certain times. Although they liked to know the exact time at that time their time wasn't valuable or money. I wonder if it was God who asked them to do so. I doubt this was the case since time wasn't important at the time this new religion started and God didn't care about it either. I doubt just praying makes you a better person or living in a closed community without interaction with the world outside your walls does. To my opinion, it makes you blind to real life and it's easy to be 'good' if you can keep all trouble outside your walls and it doesn't affect you. The monks managed to do so, even made the poor pay for their bacchanals which isn't anything to be proud of or a sign of a sober lifestyle, sharing and caring.
If it comes to the first clock: like said a stick in the ground was enough. A cup with a hole in the bottom filled with water was an interesting way to measure time (an empty cup means your time is up) and the water clock is what I call a great invention. Who needs a stopwatch or egg timer if this works too?
The first watches weren't perfect and needed to be set punctual once a day. If you think about that the punctual was a kind of guessing too since the right time in one place could be different in the next which means people still missed the train if they only kept an eye on their watch and didn't arrive earlier at the station which I would suggest since a train ticket isn't for free. If it comes to trains a lot has changed too.
To be honest I like the old trains way more. The first class at that time looked twenty times better than today. It was travelling in style and a restaurant was included just like plush pillows. Today you can pay as much for a ticket as you like but you sit on a bank covered with plastic where people wrote their name on it and vomited on the floor. You have hardly room for your legs and the food they serve is wrapped in plastic and mainly contains old cookies, chocolate, coffee and a bad tea in a coffee cup. The only luxury of travelling by train today is the high price for the ticket which you pay for of a train that is delayed. It makes me wonder why a watch with the time for train departures was ever invented.
The best, most inventive watch is made in Swiss. I remember the commercials and indeed do remember how special it was to have a watch. My first one was one without batteries and not different from the alarm clock. Both I had to rewind once a day and needed to be reset. I liked them but both are history. Today its batteries, electricity and the sound of a clock or watch ticking is history. Quartz is the trend and there's no longer a need to learn to tell the time. Watches today are made to throw away and will not be repaired by a watchmaker. An interesting fact is that since watches are no longer for the rich only most people no longer care about being on time, even worse they look at their watch every few minutes but if you ask the time they can't tell.
Since I became aware of the fact I was one of those people checking my watch every few minutes I took it off. It's years ago I did and you know what? It gave me peace of mind not to know what time it is. It's not that I never know the time since there are plenty of situations that tell me what time it is. Not precisely but who cares about the minute or second anyway? It's still possible to be on time without a watch the only thing you need to know is how long it takes you to do things, to get somewhere. Watch or not, we all have an inner clock and if you listen to that one you know when it's time to wake up, to go to work, when to eat and go to bed.
A clock is a great invention, I would love to have a collection of old watches but I will no longer carry one along with me.
I do without, my car does and I just go with the flow.
The series can be found on YouTube
