Tick..Tick..Tick…

I’d like you all to meet a friend of mine, something that has been in my life for a long, long time.

Meet my small, plastic, Chinese made, Hung Wai Industries, clock.  I haven’t named it, or assigned a gender, but in French, L’horloge is masculine, so why not run with it.  This guy has lived in my bedroom, tick-tick-ticking away, for something like 20 years.  Occasionally forgotten and neglected but faithfully counting the seconds.  That’s all one can ask of a simple clock, right?  They don’t tell you what time it is, really.  All they do is count elapsed time, and not every clock has the same understanding of how long a second is.

When I say occasionally forgotten, I actually mean most of the time.  If a battery didn’t last so damn long, I’m sure I would have tossed it by now.  And when I say not every clock has the same understanding of how long a second is, this guy fails SOHARD.

All in all, it’s not my #1 timekeeper of choice – but you know what?   Once in a while, when my roomates are quiet, and I turn my computer off, and there’s no noise outside, and I don’t have the radio on, or the coffee pot brewing, and it’s not too windy out..

Tick…Tick…Tick …

When I hear that clock ticking, it doesn’t matter that it’s wrong.  It doesn’t matter that the ticks don’t line up with my other, less audible, timekeepers.  It is such a quiet ticking – if I can hear it, you know damn well that I have no care for elapsed time.  Not to say that all my cares are gone, but for the moment, schedules, time-lines, mathematics, budgets,  are out of my mind.

It’s lonely, sure.  A reminder that time, life, is just passing by, and doesn’t give 2 cents about what I’m up to.  A reminder to do with it what you can, explore the things you might not be good at, to sharpen everything you *are* good at.  That it might be a good idea to let someone into your heart before the fire burns out, because people aren’t clocks.  People grow, change, experience, fade away.  Clocks on the other hand,

Tick…Tick…Tick…

Cheers!  To setting aside time to think, time to work, time to love, time to have fun.  My balance here has not been that great lately, but things are changing, I’ll be moving soon, starting a new job in an unknown city.  I might not even bring the clock, but I have no doubt he’ll be doing his thing when I stop back.

Speaking of timeless, check out my new razor