Tick Tuesday June 21, 2005, 7 comments
We created it, and yet we fear it. We fear it and because we fear it we try to tame it. We capture it, mete it out in tiny rashers, split down further and further. We tie a yoke around its neck and strap it to our wrists. We decorate our living spaces with it.
It’s a mystery. We never have enough of it, but when we do we try to waste it. It heals all wounds and blurs all memory. It grinds down mountains and dries up oceans. We try to catch it in a bottle.
Humans fear time. We fear it so much we try to kill it.
We remember the past, we look to the future, but we never live in the fulcrum of the now. Now, when the sands of the future slip into our past. We never live in the now, but it is only in the pinch of the now that we can change the courses of the future. The past is immutable. Only the now is in flux, the nexus of free will.
I will live in the now. Perhaps yesterday cannot be changed, but tomorrow can still be made anew by living right now.
It is said that dogs have no concept of time. They seem pretty happy that way.
A character (I believe it was Dunbar) in the Joseph Heller novel ‘Catch 22’ felt that, since time seems to lengthen during times of boredom he would cultivate boring and tedious moments in an effort to live forever.
One: “I plan on living forever.”
Two: “How’s that working out for you?”
One: “So far, so good.”
I read a story once, I think it’s by Bradbury. It was post-apocalyptic, in which a young boy is given a watch by his grandfather.
Nobody knows what it is, because there are not more clocks in the world. It seems they had become so tied to the clock that eventually there was a revolution, and all timepieces were destroyed.
Quite a thought provoking story. If I can find the title, I’ll post it here.
I remember walking down a street one day in Chicago, when a man came up to me and asked me what the time was that was on my watch. Well, I said, does anybody really know what time it is, and does anybody really care? And, If so, I can’t imagine why, we’ve all got time enough to cry…
I could go on a relate more stories – especially about this one lady – but it’s all so sad.
‘Repent harlequin, said the tick tock man’ by Harlan Ellison is a recommended read, too.
mmmmmm….. humans.
with a lovely bearnaise sauce.
~c
The Other Other White Meat™
Commenting has ended for this post, but I'd still love to hear from you.
A character (I believe it was Dunbar) in the Joseph Heller novel ‘Catch 22’ felt that, since time seems to lengthen during times of boredom he would cultivate boring and tedious moments in an effort to live forever.
One: “I plan on living forever.”
Two: “How’s that working out for you?”
One: “So far, so good.”