Watching the Time

Tomorrow is my Dad's 80th birthday.  He wants a watch.  His recently broke and he wore it all the time.  Actually, the time was wrong for most of the last year but he would not let me take it to get it fixed.   Since the onset of his dementia he became obsessed with time (and money but that is another story).  It is strange because he was never one to worry about the time much.  He never rushed through anything that I can remember.  He certainly did not seem to be concerned about the passing of the years.  But time is on his mind now.  Quite often lately he asks if it is Christmas ("no Dad, it's still summer, let's not rush it").  The other day when he asked again if it was Christmas I asked him why he felt that it was.  He replied that he "felt he was running out of time".

Aren't we all?

A friend recently posted this quote on her facebook page.  I haven't read this book but maybe I will (when I have time ;-)  ).

“Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. an alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.”


― Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper