Marking Time

Time is one of the most creative of human constructs. It has become such an integral part of our lives that it is easy to forget that it is actually a human construct. The integration of time in the very description of our state is unmistakable; past, present, and future are built into our very syntax. I make no judgment on time and its place in our lives. From when early man first traced the movement of that yellow orb across the heavens to the advent of atomic clocks, time has played a central role in our lives.

I bring up the subject of time as we pass into the New Year full of hope and promise. Looking to the future one cannot help but to venture a guess as to where the New Year will take them; of course it is only a guess. Like the movement on the hands of a thousand grandfather clocks, measure, steady, and persistent we too move forward. Clocks have always represented a bit of reassurance in this regard. Take for instance the carved wood of beautiful Howard Miller Clocks displaying the craftsmanship of generations while the sleek glass hints at the future. It is however the enduring swings of the clocks pendulum that marks the present.

The advent of the clock is merely the physical manifestation of this human construct. More than that is what clocks represent. From the old mantel clocks that we learned to tell time on as a child to the plastic wall clock that hung in the school room marking the minutes until freedom, clocks have always been present. Perhaps by being the makers, not individually but collectively, of the timepieces we are on some level trying to control the passage of time; or the passage of ourselves into time. From controlling fire to rain to time it has taken a proverbial thousand years, alas it is discovered that we may not be able to control time but we can control the events that are marked by time. The clock for 2009 may already be wound but the events are mine.