Time in a Jar

What is wealth? What is money? When my grandmother married my grandfather in the early 30’s, it was in the midst of the great depression. Their “honeymoon” was spent traveling around the East Texas, staying with various relatives and assisting with picking the gardens and canning. For their efforts, they were given a share of the canned goods.

For you younger folks . . . “canning” was sealing up food in glass jars . . . not “cans” made out of tin.

Back then, most people planted vegetable gardens in their back yards, or if they were lucky enough to have some land, they grew acres of corn and peas and raised chickens, pigs and cows.

Canning started mid-summer as soon as the first crops began to ripen . . . carrots, greens, cabbage, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans, peas, peppers, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and much more. The fruit of the land had to be picked, peeled, cut, and cooked. The jars and lids had to be washed and boiled for sterilization. Think about it . . . TEXAS . . . in JULY and AUGUST . . . in a hot kitchen . . . BEFORE air conditioning. This process was repeated day after day until enough food was stored for the winter, or the crops stopped bearing, whichever came first.

We would think “some way to spend a honeymoon!” . . . but they were HAPPY to have food on their empty shelves. Back in those days, people considered a full pantry a form of “savings” . . . if you had enough, you were content . . . if you had more than enough, you were wealthy.

That wealth consisted of . . . TIME plus WORK. For instance . . . if you cook a big batch of spaghetti (or stew or chili) and put it in the freezer, when you take it out . . . you have a meal without spending more time to make the meal. You have literally put TIME + WORK in the freezer.

That is what money is for us today . . . it’s a way to store our WORK plus TIME.

Economists will tell you money is a medium of exchange, for something of value . . . and that is true. What you’re doing in exchange for that money is . . . putting in WORK + TIME. We use money to trade our work/time for someone else's work/time. If we make shoes and want to buy food, but the farmer doesn't need new shoes . . . we trade by using money.

Many decisions come down to spending either time or money. If you can’t afford for someone to paint your house, you do it yourself . . . “spending” your time (and work) instead of spending money.

Money is interchangeable with time/work. What do people do when planning for retirement? They save money . . . they store up that work + time so they can “spend” it later.

This is why time-saving devices are so valuable! Time equals money. Businesses pay employees by the hour, if a machine can do a repetitive task faster, they can use that employee’s time for something requiring more skill. This makes operations more efficient, getting us our needed products and services faster and cheaper. (Surely you don’t LIKE your products and services to come SLOWER and be more EXPENSIVE!)

So . . . wasting time is as bad as wasting money. If you have “free” time . . . “spend” it on something . . . or SOMEONE . . . important!

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The photo is some strawberry jam I made this summer from berries we grew in our back yard berry patch. The first batch turned out great, so I made some more and gave away a bunch for Christmas gifts. Then I tried some of the second batch; the taste was good but the texture was almost rubbery. If you got some of the second batch, I apologize!