Volume 2 · The Discipline of Hours · Essay 131

Halfpinion

You may not know the name Halfpinion, but you know the thing. This page only introduces the two of you formally.

What this concept offers is a pause — one extra beat between what happens and what you do about it. Civilisation, someone said, is measured in that beat.

Think of the student the night before the board exam, and the same student the morning after results. One believes time is an enemy; the other discovers it was only a mirror.

Time is the one currency the Reserve Bank does not print more of. A word is a lamp. This one is now yours to carry.