I came across this writing that I wrote several years ago. I want to share it with you in an attempt to bring awareness that time waits for no man. The passing of today is one more day closer to eternity. I know most people don’t want to think or talk about the inevitable appointment that every person must keep with God, but it’s our destiny sooner or later. Please read these following thoughts with an open mind.
_________________________________________________________________
It was most assuredly the fastest moving, head spinning event of the century—the passing of 365 days of double-time living. This year, 1993, which is now gone, was without a doubt a similar year that my father was referring to fifteen years ago when he was alive.
I was thirty-three at that time and he was in his early seventies. We were sitting on the couch in my family room enjoying each other’s company, while sipping hot chocolate. The house was warmer than usual on this cold, autumn night, because I had turned the thermostat a few degrees higher to make Dad more comfortable.
I listened as he reminisced the days of his youth, telling stories of antics that he did. My heart was saddened when he began to compare his ageing body with his still, sharp mind. He said, "I sit here tonight an old man. My mind is sharp like an eighteen year old boy, but my body says otherwise."
As I looked into his eyes I saw that the blue was not as deep as it once was and the wrinkles in his face were many. A chill went up my spine as I too realized that he wasn't as young as he used to be. Time was taking its toll…and yes, zipping by.
He paused for a moment and then began chuckling to himself. "What's so funny?” I asked. He shook his head from side to side as he lowered it toward the floor and said, "I can't believe how fast my life has passed! It seems like yesterday that I married your mom and now she's dead. The years have come and gone quickly.” He continued: "You'll find the older you get, the faster the years go. It’s time lost." There have never been truer statements made than these.
Looking at the crossed off numbers on the last calendar month, I fail to see individual events and happenings of 1993, I only see another year has blown by faster than ever before. My understanding of Dad’s realization of time is becoming more apparent to me with each passing year.
It is now a computerized evolution in which I live. Though Dad experienced many wonderful discoveries and saw varied inventive changes in his lifetime, they do not compare with the degree of mind-boggling innovations of today that exceed my natural ability to grasp. I am being passed in supersonic proportion by hi-tech breakthroughs in technology, which are pulling me relentlessly behind in its draft.
As I endeavor to escape time travel and the draft it produces, I find that it is impossible to break away from its pull, which creates frustration and a stressful environment. The things I encounter, with regards to this computer age, bring unrest, because it seems there are so many things coming at me that there is little time to grasp how everything works.
I am constantly fighting anxieties, which cause me to assert myself to attain deeper depths of knowledge, such, that I can feel confident in my ability to sustain a status quo existence in the event that this drafting whirlwind ceases to be, thus, leaving me stranded with no compelling force of my own to provide sustenance.
Being manipulated by the underlying motivator of progress only enhances the words of my father that echo in my mind… “Time lost.” Time becomes secondary, while the goal of achievement becomes first and foremost. Before long, time will have passed me by, and like my dad I will become old.
Where has the time gone? Is it too late to find it? Time is slipping through my fingers like sand in an hourglass that is falling relentlessly to its resting place—motionless—like death.
Achievement is celebrated at whose expense? Children look with great pride as their father displays in his hand college degrees showing his capabilities to be able to carry on, but where are the days? So quickly they have passed. Where are the moments that are so important to adolescents that are growing into adulthood? Are the years gone, never to return?
Yes, these moments are gone forever, but the days ahead are within my grasp. It is not too late for tomorrow. I will have more than a diploma to pass on to my offspring. I will give them me. The year 1994 is going to be different. When I am old and I talk of the past to my children, I will have few regrets as I speak these words, "You'll find the older you get, the faster the years go. It’s time lost."
Written by,
Papa Boyd
No comments:
Post a Comment