KNOWLEDGE IS TIME

 

Time is so construed.

The older I get, the more I realize how limited our time really is. Memories, our thoughts, they feel so linear. It feels like the other day, then suddenly years begin to feel like months. I think back and try to imagine what an entire decade feels like when it's reduced to a handful of memories. It's almost unimaginable how quickly time flies.

But for this blog, I want to equate time with knowledge.

This year I decided to learn a new language. French.

As I learn it, I'm taking my time with it. One new word every day, almost like a child learning how to speak. Learning a new language has become the challenge I've given myself to slow down time.

When you're learning something new, especially something difficult, everything feels slow. Progress is almost invisible. Your brain is trying to understand unfamiliar concepts, build new connections, and remember things that weren't there yesterday.

What makes the difference is time.

I think memories become anchors in our lives. The more knowledge we gain during a certain period, the richer that memory becomes. It stretches that moment when we look back on it.

At the same time, I spent a month learning a dance routine.

When I first watched the video, I couldn't imagine myself ever completing it. I saw the whole routine and thought, "How am I ever going to remember all of this?"

But by the end of the month, I had done it, with the help of my brother of course!

Now that I know the routine, it feels easy. The same dance that once seemed impossible now feels natural. The knowledge changed my relationship with it.

I imagine that's how it will be with French. My brain will eventually recognize patterns, grasp words more easily, and build sentences faster. Then one day, almost without noticing, I'll be speaking another language.

Just like the dance.

Everything takes time.

So for now, I try to anchor my life with the things I learn. I try to fill my days with new knowledge, new experiences, new skills. In some strange way, it feels like I'm extending time itself.

Maybe that's why I've always loved philosophy, ethics, logic, and the simple act of studying life. Wondering why things are the way they are has always fascinated me.

I think about Isaac Newton seeing an apple fall from a tree. Countless people had watched apples fall before him, but he asked a different question. It wasn't just about the apple. It became about gravity, mathematics, physics, and understanding the invisible rules governing our world.

It makes me wonder whether we have philosophers in Kenya.

I'm sure we do.

They just seem quiet, almost muted. Maybe it's because I don't go looking for them. Or maybe we've come to value philosophy only as something to be taught, instead of something to be lived. We teach ideas that already exist, but perhaps we spend less time asking new questions, challenging assumptions, or creating concepts born from our own experiences.

I often wonder what would happen if we thought more deeply about our own cultures.

If we reasoned from an African perspective.

If we studied colonization, not just as history, but as something that shaped our behaviour, our thinking, our institutions, and even the way we see ourselves.

Maybe we'd move further ahead.

Maybe we'd build ideas that make sense for our own environments instead of constantly borrowing solutions that were created for different histories, different struggles, and different societies.

Or maybe I'm simply an artist.

A wondering artist.

Always lost somewhere deep in thought.

Questioning the world around me. Looking for answers, even in places that don't matter, simply because I enjoy entertaining an idea and seeing where it leads.

So for now, I look at time and I equate it with knowledge.

Learning one new skill at a time.

One new word.

One new thought.

One new question.

Maybe that's what the old saying really means.

That with time comes wisdom.

Or perhaps wisdom comes from what we choose to do with our time.