It is amazing how much our lives revolve around clocks. We are forever checking our clocks, watches, the time on our smart phones and iPads. Everything we do is based upon the time of day. We have deadlines, schedules, appointments, and places to be. We often base our eating, sleeping and waking upon a certain time of day. We set alarms and schedule wake-up calls. Some of our bodies have an amazing built-in alarm clock. Some of us depend upon a pet who needs to go out or a hungry baby to serve as our alarm clock.
There are as many types of clocks as there are reasons for needing one. Mom's house had a variety of clocks, but a few stand out as being special and unique for some reason or another. I brought to my home a really unusual clock that Mom kept on her mantle. It is an interesting clock and it has often been a conversation piece because of it's unique look. I love the clock for reasons beyond its uniqueness and am still looking for a great "home" for it in my house. I had thought of putting it on the center of my mantle like Mom had for so many years, but it just didn't work out logistically. I am sure in time I will find a special place for this clock.
I asked Mom about this clock and she said it wasn't that old...at least not that old for her. She had it about 30+ years. She and Daddy purchased it at Bill Blanton's Jewelry Store on S. Lafayette Street in Shelby. What I remember about the clock is that it did chime on the hour at one point in time. It often quit chiming and it often lost time and it never did keep very good time. More than once my Daddy took the clock in for repair. I think he took it back to the place of purchase and when they failed to satisfy the repair, he took it to some 'special' clock repair person. It aggravated him to no end that something didn't work correctly. Not working correctly just wasn't part of his "vocabulary." I can hear him mumbling something like "Dadburnit! The clock's time isn't right." I think the clock became a joke because it was simply just a decoration at this point and not a functional item. I'm not sure Daddy ever accepted that, but as it goes....It is what it is!
The clock is still non-functional, but I don't care. I could probably take it somewhere to be worked on, but I doubt I ever will. If it worked perfectly, it might not have the same "feeling" for me. I just want to be able to look at it and remember my Dad.
Another clock Mom has in her home is an electric wall clock. It hangs in her laundry room. It also serves as a real memory-jogger because it is the clock Jim and I bought to hang in the kitchen of our first apartment after we got married! It was very inexpensive and it looks like an outdated, plastic "cheap" clock.....quite the contrast to the clock on the mantle. The thing that is so interesting about this lessthantendollarclock is that it still works like a charm! I guess Time doesn't care about price or beauty. I left this clock in Mom's laundry room when she moved, but I feel I need to go back and get it. I will be curious to see how many years this clock can endure....it has already been almost 36! Perhaps it can be a symbol for things that endure. It will forever be a reminder of my first home as Mrs. James Fitzpatrick.
Another clock Mom had in her house is now proudly in my living room (even though it doesn't 'match'). It is the ornate porcelain clock from Jessie (see 'Sisters Are Timeless' blog dated 10/25/11). It, too, is a non-functional ornate clock! Daddy didn't have to worry about it since it was still Jessie's when he lived on Lynhurst Lane. The clock was given to me when Jessie sold her house on Peach Street and moved into Sterling House. Sadly, my Dad had already passed away. I guess it might be a good thing because two dadburn clocks might have been too much for Joe Porter.
William Faulkner is one of those authors I appreciate. When I was at Elon I did my Freshman term paper on him and his works. Faulkner wrote: "Clocks slay time....time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life." I think a lot of us realize this when we get "lost" in a project or an activity with our friends or family. Suddenly that clock isn't so important...rather we just savor the moments as they happen. How often do we say "time flies when we are having fun?" That really is the same principle.
Clocks are important, but perhaps their importance can simply be in their beauty rather than their functionality.
Clocks are symbolic of time. Time is precious and what we need to remember about time is how we use it. We do have a choice about our time and how it is spent. It really does not matter if the clock is functioning properly. What matters is that our brains are functioning properly enough to appreciate the time we are given and to use that time wisely.
Using time wisely doesn't necessarily mean that we have to be working or producing or "doing" something every minute. Using time wisely means that we are not doing things that will cause harm or regret. I have a wooden plaque hanging on the wall that says "Time you enjoyed wasting is not time wasted." This quote is credited to T.S. Eliot and embraced by me!
Clocks really are just a unit of measure for us humans who live by statistics, measurements, deadlines and all things practical. I feel that all we really need to remember about time is so poetically written in Ecclesiastes: "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."
I'll bet there aren't any clocks in heaven.
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| Dadburn Clock! |
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| Still Ticking |
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| Beautifully Non-Functional |
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