What Do You Make Time For?

To expand on a pet peeve of mine I mentioned recently (people who say, "I don't have time to drink bad whisky"), I'm wondering what people do make time for? Because it seems to me like saying one doesn't have time to do something is usually a pretty silly thing to say (unless you have kids because then you are simply at their beck and call). Not that we should go out of our way to drink terrible whisky, but if one wants to understand spirits appreciation in general you have to take the bad with the good. Plus, I'm not even sure there is such a thing as bad and good, but rather simply what one likes and what one doesn't like (I've had people tell me our Glenlochy cask is one of the best whiskies they've ever tasted. I've also had people tell me it's one of the most boring whiskies they've ever tasted). Not everyone can like everything.

But now I'm getting off track.

Here are some of my favorites:

"I don't have time to exercise." Or maybe you just don't want to go to bed early and then get up early to hit the gym before work.

"I don't have time to dress up and worry about how I look." Or perhaps you're not interested, or you don't know how and you therefore resent people who do.

"I don't have time to watch TV." Say the people who spend an hour browsing the internet, looking at the same five sites over and over again.

"I don't have time to cook." I often get up and cook in the morning so that I don't have to do it later that night. It's about making time, not having it.

But often that's really what "I don't have time..." means. It means the person saying that doesn't personally want to make time and is looking for a way to justify not doing so. It's almost a slight, or a knock on the person who is willing to make time. There's a reason 24 Hour Fitness exists. So that you can literally go exercise whenever you want, or whenever you can make the time to do so. Most things in life that are important to us are about making an effort. A friend comes into town, so you make the effort to free up your evening for dinner. If there's a band playing you want to go see, you might sneak out of work a bit early. We all make time for some things in life. Even the most busy of us.

Of course, there are people who are very busy, busting their behinds, working three jobs to support their families, barely stopping to eat and sleep. But we're not talking about those people. We're talking about childless, single occupation folks who simply are "too busy" to do the things we happen to care about -- the people who make us feel guilty about our passion. In my case, my passion for booze is something other people often roll their eyes at. "I don't have time to waste thinking so carefully about what I drink. I just drink and that's that." But you do have time to be discerning. Anyone does. There's a difference between not having time and not caring. So let's just call it what it is.

You don't care? Great, there's no need to tell me. But I do. So shut up.

-David Driscoll