by Trailrman Sam (trailer17@hotmail.com}
It was way back in 1977 when my English teacher nailed deep into my cerebrum this quote from Geoffrey Chaucer, “Time waits for no man”.
Forty-seven years have passed and I admit it still reverberates more in me today than hearing it for the first time from my form four English class teacher then.
This proverbial phrase, alluding to the fact that human events or concerns cannot stop the passage of time or the movement of the tides, first appeared about 1395 in Chaucer’s Prologue to the Clerk’s Tale.The original quote states that “Time and tide wait for no man.”
Time certainly does not wait for me and could even be my sworn enemy.
Maybe, if one would wish upon a falling star, then I’d hope that Michael J. Fox’s 1985 family sci-fi, “Back To The Future” may become a reality for me.
Or some Morpheus walks up to you in the middle of nowhere and gives you a choice of taking the blue pill, or the red one.
The reference to the red pill or blue pill relates to a choice between the willingness to learn a potentially unsettling or life-changing truth by taking the red pill, or remaining in contented ignorance with the blue pill.
How many of us have spent an enormous amount of our life trying to control circumstances? In all of our roles as a controller, in many phases of life’s instalments, let’s be down to earth honest, and admit that time is the one thing, one way or other, that we have tried to control over pretty much everything else!
There is a time for everything, we are told. The problem with time, however, is that it does not stand still for any living soul.
No matter what may be happening in life, good or bad, time continues to tick away, and not always at the velocity that we want to.
My life started in Parit Buntar, Perak with a staff nurse being rather stressed as she struggled to inscribe my name on the birth certificate.
A few, well not so important, years went by after that. Maybe they didn’t move fast enough for me except for for a spell living in a government’s quarters with a cobra burrow in Kuala Lipis.
It was normal to see the king of serpents having a siesta just under our dining table! Our whole family gradually learnt to live and stay alive by not provoking the deadly black monsters.
When we later moved to Prai, growing up and going to school seemed to me that those days, months, and
even years were moving at record-breaking speed within a decade or so.
As a kid, I couldn’t wait for those double digits to add to my age. And then breaking out of my teen years to that special or big 21. No more that big boy anymore. Perhaps more of a young man then.
In my 20’s, I found myself wanting to be older and happier. The ebbs and flows of life can create an illusion that whatever season we may be in, there will always be more time to do more or to become more.
Although this was true, I have to admit, that’s not the whole story. Looking back on life I realise that I have spent most of it rushing away at time.
Upon crossing the 60th mark and becoming a senior citizen, I found myself wondering and even saying it aloud “Where has time gone?” Yeah, it’s indeed one sombre question.
Just a short time ago, as if living through the pandemic wasn’t bad enough, the thought that there will always be plenty of time to do life as planned, was snatched from my world with little or no warning.
One way or another during COVID, if in the past we thought we could control time, I somewhat had a rude awakening. While others tried to hold on to things as they were, I found myself asking for a divine interruption/intervention.
Before the pandemic, things in my life seemed to have been moving so quickly that I had even been praying that time could stand still for just a minute so I could catch up, or at least catch my breath.
And then all of sudden, out of nowhere, as if my prayers had been answered, time stood still. It seemed that time was standing still as the pandemic opened its
doors. It was time for keeping what was needed while throwing away what wasn’t. It was a time for being quiet and reflecting about the past.
While rushing through in life, I have learned that on this side of eternity, time is all we have to become we want to be.
Although I choose not to live with regrets, I often find myself wishing I had spent the time I’d been given more wisely.
Now I realise that time for me is that valuable gift given by the Creator. Is it possible to prevent time from being my enemy?
Even though time may not wait for anyone, taking one day at a time enables me to catch my breath. The key word for me now is I try by not remembering days. I remember moments. Precious moments, especially.