Man Alone Measures Time
Why does man measures time? Why, by measuring time is the start of all man's suffering?
Mich Albom's The Time Keeper has been on the bookshelf for a long time, and recently I had the chance to re-read this classic. True to his usual style, Albom uses personification to humanize a concept, builds up the character and brings across the message through storytelling. In this book, he personified Time and created the character Father Time. Throughout centuries, folklore on Father Time with his long white beard, and possibly holding on one hand a huge hourglass, are common stories among children and adults. This is a story for adults, as Albom preached the key message of treasuring not Time itself, but the time spend with the loved ones as the true value of time.
Father Time was Dor, a kid who was obsessed with measuring things. An obsession not unlike man's endless pursue of an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. What's the value of knowledge if we don't put them into good use? Dor was this one person obsessed with the pursuit and ignored the value behind his own action.
Dor's life will at some point cross path with Sarah and Victor, two mortals in today's world, also obsessed with time. Sarah, her life just started and she couldn't wait for time to pass quickly; Victor, his life coming to a close and he wished to stop time and beat death. Albom used these 2 distinct characters to demonstrate regardless which era, what stages of life, they still did not understand the value of time.
In the early chapters, Albom developed these 3 characters and built a story surrounding their lives. Dor married his childhood sweetheart and had children, and he kept his pursue of measuring time even though no one understood why, not even his own mother. Once, the great king Nim wanted him to put his knowledge into good use rather than " putting holes in bowls", he refused. When he invented the world's first clock, his wife was alone, crying for their lives which was about to turn for the worst. He missed the implication of the hardship he was about to inflict on his family by turning Nim down, and also missed the miracle of a beautiful sunrise on the hill with his beloved wife as he focused on "capturing day and night in a bowl". An arrogance no less from Nim's desire to build the tallest tower to reach heaven. When Alli fell ill, Dor wanted to change time, and ran towards the only place he thought could reach heaven, Nim's tower. He didn't reach heaven, he fell into a cave and became Father Time.
Sarah was a young school girl infatuated with this handsome popular guy in school. She wanted to control time by wishing it to go faster while waiting for her date to start and then go slower while on the date. The story of Sarah is of one told and retold. A young girl from not too well-to-do family pinning all hopes on a popular guy and hoping for deliverance out of what she thought was a miserable life. The prince charming turned out to be a regular jerk of a boy wanting to take advantage of her. Sarah, as all young girls go, Sarah thought that in giving the boy a carefully selected watch would win her his heart and love. The irony of the carved message behind the watch, "time flies", made by Dor himself is the crust of the girl's desire, more time with her "boyfriend". Finally, when the "boyfriend" posted a nasty remark on Facebook, Sarah knew her life was over, there was nothing left except to kill herself. "End it now". Sarah did not need anymore time for herself, she wanted to end time in her life.
Victor had a good long life, and it was coming to the close for him with a tumor in his liver. However he wanted more, more time, more life, he wanted immortality. With all the world's resources and money at his disposal, he wanted Research to "go faster" and find out how to beat death. This was what Victor do, "see a problem, find its weak spot, and crack it open". When he finally realized this was one problem he cannot fix, he turned his attention to time, to stop it from running out, another arrogance of man. Cryonics seemed to be the solution, and key to beating death, and he will single-handedly do it without his wife knowing. For a dying man, Victor was not afraid, but impatient for his plan to circumvent death to kick into place earlier.
There are many parallelism weaving throughout the stories, in particular the perspectives of Grace and Lorraine. Grace, the enduring wife of Victor, who was beside him all his life, quietly waiting for him to pay just a bit more attention to her and cared even a little more about her feelings. She waited all her life and now that Victor's end was near, she no longer see any reason for anything to change. She wanted Victor to "just come home". Lorraine was Sarah's mother. She lamented on how different Sarah was as she grew up, from a mummy's girl who loved to have a manicure together to one that barely communicated with her mum following the split of the parents. Both wanted the same thing even though under different circumstances, just a little attention from their beloved. On the fateful day where Sarah and Victor decided to take their own lives, both Grace and Lorraine were kept in the dark. Was it out of love for them or was it out of plain selfishness that Sarah and Victor spared Grace and Lorraine of their decisions?
The story line of Father Time was nothing less than an exhilarating fantasy of time freezing, time travel and his acquiring of all the knowledge in the new world. Dor's journey really started after he fell into the cave. He was given the gift (more likely a curse) of not aging for another minute. He gave man the first fruit of desire - the counting of days, then hours, minutes, seconds and finally moments. The consequence is that man will feel the misery of measuring time and lost sight of the many wonders of the world. The desire to control time, faster, slower, more, less; floated up to Dor in his cave and became his slow torture. The irony of it all was apparently, he alone in the world was the only one that can control time and yet wanting none of this power.
"You marked the minutes," the old man said. "But did you use them wisely? To be still? To cherish? To be grateful? To lift and be lifted?".
Welding the one power that every man wanted, Dor could start and stop time as he wished. He taught himself to read and acquired all the knowledge in the world. He spent 100 years observing a single day and completed his education of the modern world. He went to New York and saw the many skyscrapers that reminded him of Nim, and wondered if there was no end to man's ambition. Dor did not forget his mission of finding 2 souls, one who wanted too much time and another who wanted too little, and teach them what he learnt. And he heard "another lifetime" and "make it stop", and met both Victor and Sarah at the clock shop where he worked. What followed next was similar to the Ghost of Christmas Future, Father time put both of them together and showed future to them if their respective plans to end their lives actually took place. Lorraine was devastated by her daughter's choice and Grace hated being robbed the chance to say goodbye. Just went both Sarah and Victor realized what they needed to do, Dor also learnt the greatest lesson in life - "with endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can't appreciate what we have".
Epilogue is a section of tying up loose ends. Dor finally got his wish. He learnt a six thousand year long lesson and returned to his wife on her deathbed in order to say goodbye and join her. Victor utter the one word that aborted the entire Cryonics operations. He never did forget Grace, the one person that mattered to him. Sarah fought for her life and was rescued from her own suicide attempt and grew up to find a cure on what killed Victor, and at the standing ovation of her success, she gave thanks.
This is a story about Time, but it is actually a story about love. As the saying goes, time waits for no man. Being measured or not, time continue to press on, ruthless, relentless, regardless, all for the sole purpose of limiting our days - "To make each life precious." Be thankful of all things we have in life and treasure every moment we have with our loved ones. Count not the moments we have, but count the blessings that come with every moment of our limited lives.
