16 Jan Hopelessly delayed

I received a text message: ‘Am hopelessly delayed due to delays at an airport. Not sure yet if I can be on time tonight.’
And a little later: ‘Now I’m at another airport and this plane appears to be delayed.’
I smile inwardly. I have an appointment with Oliver Burkeman, the author of 4000 Weeks. He is in the Netherlands on the occasion of the Dutch translation of his new book Meditation for Mortals, published in the Netherlands under the title The 4 weeks reset. Oliver Burkeman, like me, is mesmerized by the subject of ‘time’. To meet each other is already our first time challenge.

At 8 o’clock in the evening we finally walk along the canals on our way to the restaurant in the Jordaan. Oliver didn’t put on a coat despite the fact that it’s only a little above zero and I put on my winter coat and hat. ‘No, I’m used to that. It’s always cold up there’, he says with a warm smile on his mouth.

2 months reset
‘I think your book has a very pleasant form,’ I say. It consists of four times seven chapters, each of which you can read in a maximum of 10 minutes. Every day you read a new chapter. In a month you have finished the book, but you have also walked through your own experience of time and meaning of life.

I consider myself a slow reader. Often I go back to read and feel a sentence again or I put the book away to let a paragraph resonate in me. The 4 week reset becomes the 2 months reset for me.

Strollers of the moment
In the restaurant I am also a slow eater. Or am I answering so many questions from Oliver? There is a lot of recognition between us. Neither of us is looking for an even more efficient or even more focused use of time. Life is too unpredictable to be put on tight chains. Creativity thrives on daring to let go. Good ideas often contain a dose of coincidence.
Burkeman also regularly argues for accepting the human dimension. His blog bears the defiant title ‘The Imperfectionist’.
We are both strollers of the moment: if you try to grab ‘the now’, it will already be gone.

We also experience that during this meeting. In the freezing cold we walk back to his hotel. Amsterdam reflects its lights in the canals.

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