Editorial: Time to get serious about time
One of the few positives about the world of lockdown is that people across the globe who were previously time-poor suddenly find themselves time-rich.
And just as lottery winners can find their bonanza more a curse than a blessing unless assisted by a money coach to help them manage properly their new found wealth, so it is that our newly discovered abundance of time can leave us confused, anxious even, as we end up squandering this precious resource which we know will never return.
That’s where this month’s Adamah comes in.
This new edition could be like a “time coach” for us as we navigate the hours without deadlines, the journeys which must take place in our minds rather than on the roads, and tackle the books which we bought in a fit of enthusiasm and now stare reproachfully at us from the bedside table, silently challenging us to open them and delve inside. The guilt of not reading is double this month as we can no longer use the traditional excuse – “I have no time!”
So here goes … let Carolyn Morrison be your guide as we explore the best of online art – some of the great galleries of the world will load up before your eyes. And while we are on our virtual art tour, let Luca La Monica stop you and point out the subtle symbolism in one of history’s great works of art – Raphael’s School of Athens.
Fly back in time (why not – anything is possible in lockdown!) and let Jaqueline Silverio walk you through the great tale of Boccaccio’s Decameron and Jasmine Jones shine a light on the Dark Ages … which, it turns out, were not so dark at all!
Film editor Martin Ketterer offers another way to find answers from the past by enticing you to watch again the film of your own roots as he discovers the joys of genealogy. And when you’ve experienced all of this, Leonard Franchi invites you to join him for a beautifully evocative cappuccino in Rome!
But if you are looking for a more direct treatment of the pandemic and how to deal with it, you’ll find that too in the new edition of Adamah. For a creative and poetic approach, check out Sasha Perugini’s dream-like meditation on the colours of Covid. More practically, clinical psychologist Michael Killoran Ross offers helpful tips on coping at home (and what we can learn from astronauts during lockdown), and Martin Duran Lopez encourages us to find a deeper meaning in this time of confinement.
The ancient Greeks distinguished between “chronos”, the mere passing of time, its quantity, and “kairos”, the significance of time, its quality. Once again, maybe we have a lot to learn from them.
Time to dive in … the clock’s ticking.
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Ronnie Convery
Ronnie Convery is a journalist and broadcaster who has written for a variety of publications in the UK and Italy. Currently he divides his time between directing communications at the Archdiocese of Glasgow and serving as Italian Honorary Consul in the city. He has a long background in print and TV, a strong presence on social media and recently penned a book entitled Reclaiming the Piazza (about creating space for dialogue to overcome division).
