The Anti-Kairos

Dear Impossible Readers,

We live in an age of abundance. Every moment, we are surrounded by great voices. We hear them in classrooms, on TED stages, and on podcasts. For a moment, we are electrified. We nod, underline, like, and maybe even share. 

Minutes later, life rushes back in. We grab a coffee. We check our phones. We walk into the bathroom. A friend calls. Slowly, that insight we found so powerful dissolves into the stream of daily routine. Hours later, we might recall that we heard a great podcast or a fantastic talk. We retell it over dinner with friends, then we have another glass of wine and enter a ruminative loop of storytelling and more wine. We enter the Anti-Kairos, the missed moment. The moment when inspiration was offered, when transformation seemed possible, but it passed by unused. A Kairos moment wasted.

Perhaps we do not want to change. Perhaps the Anti-Kairos is the devil in all of us. It allows us to enjoy the pleasure of inspiration without the discomfort of action. It lets us feel like participants in progress while protecting our comfort zones. It keeps traditions alive, preserving the familiar, the comforting, the unchanged.

So maybe the Anti-Kairos is not a failure. Maybe it is our favourite form of entertainment, an inspirational theatre rather than a rehearsal for an audition. A way to taste the unknown without letting it disrupt life. Perhaps the world is more appealing when it remains the same.

Is it though?
Yours Possibly