Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.
Those famous words from the chapter Riddles in the Dark in JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit rings home the theme of what I've been mulling on the past few days.
Time is something that defies and yet defines us mortals at every turn. We kill it, yet it never dies; we waste it, yet it remains even when we do not. We never have enough of it, and yet we often wish to be rid of particular bits of it that we still have. No matter how long we chase after it, it will always run away from us successfully; yet when we run from it, it always catches up to us. We may take a moment, which uses up that moment, even if that moment was used to reflect on a previous moment. Each moment of time is different than the last, and yet every single moment is the same as the moment previous to it and the moment succeeding it. Times do not change, not really, but we are changed by time.
Every single one of us has an unspecified amount of time, and no matter what we do or how we act or what choices we make, that amount will not change, and when that last minute ticks away, we punch out life's time-card. When we are young, seconds seem like minutes, minutes seem like hours, hours seem like days, and days years and years decades, but very shortly this entire perception is tipped on its head, and we are looking back at all of life's years as mere seconds, and we despair because we wasted many of them waiting for the future. Of course, even this nostalgic rumination ignores the fact that we could be even closer to the end of our particular collection than we might like to think. Tomorrow, I could be swept off this earth by an errant driver or a small clot in the blood vessels in my brain that I was blissfully unaware was forming, or I could live out that next day like the one before and not think twice about the dangers I so fortunately avoided.
In the end, all that is left is to use the allotment of time you've been given wisely. To enjoy each minute of each day as the gift they are, and to give others the same courtesy--they may have even less time than you do. Love those around you with everything you have, and work as hard as you can as though working for God. This is no new advice, certainly, but it bears rehearsing, for it is so very easy to forget. I leave you now with a lyric:
(Tim O Brien and Darell Scott)
This world is made from sweat and toil
Pushing muscle and elbow oil
We can’t lie too long in the shade
Because everyday must be remade
Some days we fall some days we fly
In the end we all must die
Our rotten flesh and broken bones
Will feed the ground that we call home
Will feed the ground that we call home
A new sprout grows from a fallen tree
This song will go on after me
So lift your heart and dry your eyes
It’s another day to live and die
It’s another day to live and die
Now I’ve run naked in the wild
Seen the beauty of a new born child
Like the alchemists of old
I’ve tried to spin my straw to gold
Most times a giver some times a thief
So full of hope but prone to grief
Between freedom and despair
I know the truth is lying there
I know the truth is lying there
A new sprout grows from a fallen tree
This song will go on after me
So lift your heart and dry your eyes
It’s another day to live and die
It’s another day to live and die
Go on now don’t you worry about me
You’ve miles to go and a world to see
My life’s been long and full and good
I’ve run this race the best I could
It’s a short time here and a long apart
The same song rings in both our hearts
So take this guitar when I’m gone
Write your rhymes and pass it on
A new sprout grows from a fallen tree
This song will go on after me
So lift your heart and dry your eyes
It’s another day to live and die
It’s another day to live and die
1 comment:
I really REALLY loved this post. :S :) I found it especially enjoyable, and so very moving!
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