A longer view of time

The writer’s i’m resonating with the most lately all consistently hold a longer view of time.

Richard Rohr describes deep time in lots of his writing eg Falling Upward.

In The Art of Possibility, Ben Zander encourages his orchestra us to appreciate the long lines of the musical piece they’re performing, as opposed to focusing on one particular bar or section.

Seth Godin commends Gary Vaynerchuk for consistently adopting a longer view posture of time, such that “At anytime, the short-term thinker thinks you’re an idiot!”

In Simon Sinek’s most recent book, The Infinite Game, he critiques short-term institutional metrics such as published quarterly results in business, which push people to focus their performance on the immediate. The owners of these companies, individual or institutional shareholders, often have no long term commitment to them, and can sell at any time at the click of a button. Our politics are no different with relatively finite terms of office.

Then of course there’s that great author, Jesus, who the New Testament writer’s described as the Word. He told his followers to pray “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.” and went onto describe this Kingdom like a seed, or yeast… small beginnings seem inconsequential to him in the context of the long lines of time.

As we seek to add value to the people around us, are we making short-term reactionary deposits, or long-term purposeful investments?