Volume 2 · The Discipline of Hours · Essay 171
Non-Consensus Square
There are ideas that shout. Non-Consensus Square is not one of them. It waits quietly until the day you need it.
Strip it to the floor and you find an old instruction: look carefully, judge slowly, act decently. The new name exists because the old instruction keeps being forgotten.
The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.
The kirana shop opens at eight sharp, festival or fever. Ask the owner his secret and he will point at the shutter, not at his willpower. Systems outlast moods.
Time is the one currency the Reserve Bank does not print more of. The name is new; the wisdom stood at bus stops long before either of us.