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Why do we measure time, the days and nights?
This is the question at the center of the fable, The Time Keeper, written by Mitch Albom. Dor, the central character, discovered how to measure time. He invented the first time measurement devices. Because of his obsession with time he becomes Father Time.
Think of all the common words and phrases that are time associated: when, before, after, until, while, 'what time is it?', 'do you have the time?', 'time flies'...the list is endless. We have a time fixation. But do we use our time wisely?
Dor is lost in time. Actually, all of the main characters in this fable are struggling with lost hope, stuck in time. The author suggests that, "When hope is gone, time is punishment (p 160)." Each is trying to end their pain. Like any good fable or parable, eventually, through a successsion of events, each character finds hope again...interestingly enough, through Grace.
Dor has been confined to a cave, alone, for eons of time. In this cave is the "biggest water clock of all (p69)". A drip of water forms a stalactite which hangs from the celing. A stalagmite rises from the cave floor. As these two forms grow closer to one another we see the shape of an hour glass. In fact, this shape, under the influence of an old man who visits Dor, morphs into an hourglass. The hourglass, where heaven meets earth, where the future gives way to the present and then becomes the past. Inside the hourglass are all the moments in the universe, each represented by a fine, tiny, white grain of sand. The old man gives this hourglass, the power to control time and an opportunity to learn the value of time, to Dor.
"You marked the minutes," the old man said. "But did you use them wisely? To be
still? To cherish? To be grateful? To lift and be lifted? (p 79)"
"What will you do with the time you have left (p 137)?" is a question on a pamphet one of the characters in the story picks up at an End of the World rally. The question reminds me of the words of a hymn:
Time flies on wings of lightning;
We cannot call it back.
It comes, then passes forward
Along its onward track.
And if we are not mindful,
The chance will fade away,
For life is quick in passing.
'Tis as a single day.
(Improve the Shining Moments, Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 226)
I need to make better use of my time. I think I might buy myself an hourglass!