When I was younger I attended a summer camp in which they stripped us of our luxuries. For two weeks we lived without televisions, were not allowed to eat candy or sweet food and we all slept under the stars. We lived in the moment, enjoying each other's company and the gifts from the earth. A list was sent out about a week before the camp began which told what we were allowed to bring and what would be left at home. On this list it stated that any watch or time telling instrument needed to be left at home. Once we got there, schedules that we were use to adhering to were not necessary. If we had a desire to time ourselves to get some place we would judge it by the shadow cast on rocks, or the position the sun had in the sky. This taught me to live in the moment, to take every second as it came.
1898 photograph of a group of young girls learning...
Summer Camp, 1982
Campers and staff of Camp Becket of the Becket Chi...If I had to be someplace at a certain time, I knew how to judge it by nature; a skill that has come to play many a time.
Not only can I now keep myself in check by natural skills, but if I it is ever necessary to know the exact time, I need only look to a fellow person. This connects me to people, encourages me to interact with strangers and gives me something to say to someone when nothing else comes to mind (which is very handy and can be said before or after a wonderful comment about the weather).
It also works in the opposite way. If I owned a watch I would receive countless questions about the time, an annoyance that would not only piss me off but make me paranoid about the time itself.