Talking about her inspiration for the poem ‘le temps mort’, which you can read through the link above, Jenny Xie talks about how temp mort (dead time) is a phrase used in film making to describe periods where very little is happening narratively. Useless time.
The phrase ‘useless time’ really stuck out to me. How callous we are with our time. Spending it. Wasting it. Passing it. How can our most precious resource ever be useless?
Jim Dethmer also talks about this concept of ‘dead time’ and ‘alive time’. In that context, alive time is time were we are active and present and living life. Dead time, conversely, is time that is controlled by other people – work being an obvious example, although work can be alive time if we’re engaged and developing as a result of it.
If you were to categorise your time, how much of it would be alive time? How much of your life would be dead time?
Today’s prompt:
How much of your life falls into the category of ‘le temps mort’ (dead time). What steps can you take to ensure you have more alive time?
Happy journaling!
Dave Bawden is the founder of This Journaling Journey, where he helps people (especially men) use journaling to rewrite their personal myths, reconnect with meaning, and define success on their own terms. He writes at the intersection of self-authorship, narrative identity, and everyday philosophy.
