As time goes by
This week I have
been reminded that there is a time for everything. A friend in high school
passed away. The sad part is that we never really knew him after school. I
guess he became homeless and never became what he dreamed of. I bet he would
have been astounded at the response to his death. Memories of his life came out
of the wood work. Time seems to pass us by like a speeding train. Yet, do we
notice what we have done and where we have been. It’s possible we touch other
lives more than we think.
My grandmother died at 87, yet I never
knew her. She was just grandma. I did not know she could play guitar and was
scared of driving. I have often wondered what my grandfather believed in and
voted for. I am lucky that my high school friends still meet now and then to
connect. We have a special bond. We are friends but it’s only in passing from
time to time. Is that the same with family? People move away and lose touch
with people. Do we lose something when we disconnect?
I think about this because, at 50,
time has passed. I realize that friends are made and friends are lost. Championships
are won and players are remembered. Two of my favorite sports buildings are
being torn down. I remember when they were built. If you go to your first
concert in a building that is now being demolished, you are old. If friends and
family begin to pass away of natural causes you are old. Being young is really
the fact you’re not old yet. The “Yet” means time is passing you by.
I read Moby Dick but it took me four
months. That is a big friggin book. I decided that before I go that I would
read all the classics. My new book project is War and Peace. A bigger friggin
book. I went to a hockey game for the last time in an old building. I am taking
a cruise and I’ve never done that before. Keeping in shape, eating better, and
trying desperately to hold on to time as it passes me by. At 25 I saw life. At 50
I see the sands of time and it’s not funny.
What does God have to say about
time. God is considered outside of time. He sees the beginning and the end of
all time. Jesus said he had little time. He spent most of those 33 years
meeting as many people as he could. Solomon says that everything has its time
under the sun. Noah built an ark for a hundred years. People played out their lives
around his construction as if nothing could go wrong. When the rains came they
noticed time didn’t they. Do I want to notice time when it’s too late? God
wants us to live now because he sees that time is really short.
There are bucket lists and other
things like that. One list says read 12 books in a year. Visit places you
always wanted to see. Do things that you never thought possible. I have several
friends now that have died. Did they get the chance to read War and Peace or is
it too late? When I was 33 I became divorced within a split second. In that
moment, I saw 33 years’ flash before my eyes. The question became “Will I lose
the next 33?”
I
seemingly lost all the time spent with one wife and realized that I lived for
her and not for me. It seems selfish but if you don’t make the most of your
time then what? Yes, we should take time to be an inspiration to others. Maybe
my homeless friend needed a friend? Since my divorce I have made it my mission
to live well. I have little time for mean people. I try and smile every day and
help others smile too. I say it’s time to inspire the mirror just as much as
other people’s mirrors.
This
is not a lesson in staring at death, but yes of course it is. Young people die
without doing much. Old people die without doing much too. Saying I will get
around to it is the most stupid thing you could say. There is never enough time,
so do it now. Death is a mean son of a bitch who does care for no one. Get to
know people. Do it now. Whose time is nearly up? Make the most of your time and
theirs. That does not mean that you spend time recklessly or live recklessly. What
it does mean is that God gives you a certain amount of time to live more than
to just exist until he calls you home.
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