Time out by Marian Casillas, Ed.D.

Mr. Watchman marches straight up to Ms. Lately as she is leisurely sitting in her work station and staunchly states, “You’re late for work. You’re supposed to be here promptly at 8:00 a.m. and you arrived at 9:30 a.m.”

Ms. Lately languidly lolls in her chair and relaxingly replies, “Well, I think that time is simply a social construct that is used to discriminate against “non-traditional time-oriented people”. It feels like to me that it is 8:00 a.m., so according to “my inner time clock” I’m on time for work.”

Mr. Watchman indignantly intones, “You’re fired!”

Ms. Lately retorts with, “You’re a bigot! I’ll hire a lawyer; sue you for not wanting to accept my concept of time and for discriminating against me for being a distinctively, unique time-oriented person. You have no right to impose your “time restrictions” on me. I’m free to make up my own concept of time which you have to accept or else face the consequences of being an intolerant bigot, a traditional time enforcer and an authoritarian time-master.”

Mr. Watchman walks away shouting for all to hear, “You’re crazy! See you in court.”

Ms. Lately wonders to herself, “Now what?”

“Well”, she thinks to herself, “I think it’s time for a coffee-break, I’ll go down to the break-room and have a cup of coffee and see what delectable desserts are there for the picking and then I guess I’ll have to pack up my personal belongings and leave. But I’ll leave after I make some phone calls and work on my résumé for a new job. But maybe I’ll get so much money from my out-of-court settlement that I’ll never have to work again. So, maybe after my coffee-break I’ll look for a civil rights attorney who will take my case, maybe they’ll take my case all the way to the Supreme Court, it will be a famous court ruling with my name on it , everyone will be talking about me and I’ll be on the news programs and giving interviews . . . .”

Suddenly the alarm clock blasts loudly, Ms. Lately sees: 6:00 a.m. on her clock and quickly gets up to start her morning routine so she won’t be late for work because time matters and is of the upmost importance.

Ms. Lately thinks to herself, what a silly dream I had last night!

 

Marian Casillas, Ed.D.