Kairos

How a young person may long for the wisdom of old age! I often wish I had known and understood what I know now when I was 18 – but then perhaps I wouldn’t have learned from my mistakes. I would also have worked harder on my weaknesses before they became ingrained as habits and so much harder to alter! One of the greatest gifts we can have for 2016 is the gift of knowing the kairos time – the right moment to act or speak or stay silent or grab an opportunity that may never recur.

A reproduction of the carving of the god kairos at Sikion, Greece, whose inscription warns us to grab the moment before it passes.

The Greeks had two ideas of time. One was chronos or chronological time – clock time if you like (from which we get our word anachronism, meaning, not in time or out of date). The other is kairos or the right time, the appropriate time, the moment which we need to seize before it passes. We all know the difference, but I think we’re ill-equipped in our culture to act on kairos time. The reason is that kairos is closely related to risk.

I think our culture has become risk averse. We no longer bike to school – it’s too dangerous. Parents fill in our university application with us (and even for us). We opt for safe choices in our careers, and when my daughter asked to go on a school trip to Africa I refused (I felt it was too dangerous). We disinfect our kitchen work surfaces and get worried about whether leaving an unsuitable job or dead-end relationship is actually the right thing. We are nervous about speaking to that person at the party we’re attracted to – in case we get rejected. And the moment slips. But kairos time means judging the moment and then having the courage to take the risk.

This is the age of enterprise and opportunity. It has never been easier to make (and lose) money. New enterprises are created daily on the back of a global internet –based market place. But are we educated to fail? Or is failure seen as a bad thing, something to be avoided at all costs? I know of students who won’t apply to Oxbridge because they think they will fail. But failure should be seen as a type of victory – as long as we have proceeded according to the right strategies and with the right beliefs. To try, and then stop when it is proven something doesn’t work is a double victory – the victory of attempting where others dare not and the victory of knowing when it’s wise to stop.

On the statue of the god of kairos, the god of opportunity, in Sikion are written these words. Kairos time can easily slip away just as chronos time does. Don’t look after it, wanting to grab it in 2016 when it’s too late.

Why do you stand on tip-toe? I am ever running.
And why do you have a pair of wings on your feet? I fly with the wind.
And why do you hold a razor in your hand? As a sign that I am sharper than any sharp edge.
And why does your hair hang over your face? For anyone who meets me to grab me by the lock of hair.
And why, in Heaven’s name, is the back of your head bald? Because no-one I once raced by on my winged feet can grab me from behind (even though they’d love to).
Why did the artist make you? For your sake, stranger.