Time An Enemy
Time an enemy not easy to slay.
It can tear the wing apart,
sever it with such an unclean cut
one can bleed for days.
An hour is a clever hallucination,
a year more so,
a lifetime...the grand hoax.
The way sound and light travel,
the way all come from a source that has never moved,
at the height of the action of longing
or in the perfect resistence to all the forces of mortals...
everything can stop.
That is where you want to be,
where the clock's tyranny has lost its influence.
If you can travel to where the clock's tyranny has lost its influence, you've conquered death. Humans are the only beings that conduct our lives centered around the passage of time, and with that practice, comes a fear of time running out.
I think we all answer to Time, but find solace only when we measure its passing in a different way: in acts of love instead of money earned, in kisses given rather than more worldly milestones. Except, we still chart our "moments" (even our ones most pure of heart) by it.
Hemingway may have been closer to answer though: “There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any timespan."
Here's a short story about Hemingway that I've always liked. Challenged by his friends one night to write a story in less than 10 words, he replied 'I'll do it in 6.' He then came up with 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn.' This story evokes more emotion than some full length novels, and Hemingway is rumored to have called it his best work.
Indeed, every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived that distinguish one man from another.
“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these, you can be sure it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Time an enemy not easy to slay.
It can tear the wing apart,
sever it with such an unclean cut
one can bleed for days.
An hour is a clever hallucination,
a year more so,
a lifetime...the grand hoax.
The way sound and light travel,
the way all come from a source that has never moved,
at the height of the action of longing
or in the perfect resistence to all the forces of mortals...
everything can stop.
That is where you want to be,
where the clock's tyranny has lost its influence.
If you can travel to where the clock's tyranny has lost its influence, you've conquered death. Humans are the only beings that conduct our lives centered around the passage of time, and with that practice, comes a fear of time running out.
I think we all answer to Time, but find solace only when we measure its passing in a different way: in acts of love instead of money earned, in kisses given rather than more worldly milestones. Except, we still chart our "moments" (even our ones most pure of heart) by it.
Hemingway may have been closer to answer though: “There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any timespan."
Here's a short story about Hemingway that I've always liked. Challenged by his friends one night to write a story in less than 10 words, he replied 'I'll do it in 6.' He then came up with 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn.' This story evokes more emotion than some full length novels, and Hemingway is rumored to have called it his best work.
Indeed, every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived that distinguish one man from another.
100 Years (2003), Five for Fighting
“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these, you can be sure it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
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