To recognize each person’s individual capacities for endurance is, I think, one way in which we can create a world that relies more on generosity than judgment. In what ways can we recognize the race we are each running, on our own separate tracks that have no specific shapes, where there is no such thing as time, no such thing as an Olympic record? It is the exactness of time that destroys us. It is the way time has been commodified. It is the how-much-can-you-fit-in. It is the way, when you begin talking about how much you can do or how much you can consume, you begin to think of how to alter yourself so that you can do and consume more.

Imagine, on the other hand, if our society had space for all the other character traits out there. If drive and efficiency and productivity weren’t the most important, but were recognised as things that are fiery. But that water, air, and earth all had places that were just as important: that play was important and empathy was important and the ability to think long-term was important. That we recognised our own natural pace, and processing speed, and skills as being valid in their own right, not valid in reference to, or in absence of Fire. 
 

How would that feel different? 

How would that change our feelings of self-worth? 

How would it change how we felt about ourselves at the end of a day, if it wasn’t measured solely by how productive we were, but maybe by how good a conversation we had with a friend, or how much fun we had, or how we rested very well?