Passing Time

“Tick-tock, tick-tock, do you know what time is twelve o’clock?”

 

That’s from a book my little sister had when she was a baby.  I’d cite my source, but I don’t remember the name.  Too much time has passed.  I can tell you the book was about 12 pages long and included 1 page for every hour of the day.  It was one of my little sister’s favorites; that and “Hi Says Baby.” I know, these were not New York Times Baby Best Sellers, but they mattered to my sister, and that’s all that mattered to us.

 

Yeah, before she was 4 she wasn’t a literary genius.  She couldn’t fathom Seussian rhyme and although she preferred Dickens to Hawthorne I couldn’t stand him so she’d just have to peddle her dog-eared Great Expectations somewhere else.  I would read the time book though.

 

“Tick-tock, tick-tock, do you know what time is one o’clock?”

 

Time to get a new book? Yup, that’s page two from the same book. That’s how time works.  One tick at a tock time. My sister got older and I don’t know if any of us know where that book is any more.  Time erases some things—and yes—even the effects of divorce.

 

I think that’s why my sister’s time book is in my head. I saw a post for help on D360 yesterday.  Some woman complained because everybody told her she’d heal “in time,” and “in time” was not coming soon enough.

 

“Tick-tock, tick-tock, do you know how to hurry this #^%&in’ clock?”

 

That’s a translation of page 3. I can do that because this time story plot is not an H. G. Wells  classic.  I can shift time without having to worry about what I’ll do to the future. My sisters’s story was kinda weak.  By page 3 you could see where the story was going, but you couldn’t get there fast enough.  Same with divorce, cuz only time heals the wounds, but time just drags and it’ll take more than Eloi or Morlocks to pick up this plot lag.

 

That’s why the blog poster was having trouble.  She didn’t want some story about a future utopia; she wanted to heal now.  I can’t blame her.  I know.  I was there.  I’ve heard, “It takes time,” often enough to want to beat the clock over somebody’s head. 

 

“Tick-tock, tick-tock, do you know another cliché about a clock?”

 

Page 4. I’m no longer reading.  I’m just saying the words while I change channels on the TV.  My sister doesn’t know the difference; she’s just eating this up.  As adults we know the difference.  “It’s ok, you’ll move on and find somebody else.”  Yeah, and you can kiss my hairy butt too.

 

Why do all the clichés come out during divorce?  Partly because they’re true--also because it’s what the book says. Hey, in your divorce I don’t know what’s going on.  I’m just reading from the script.  When I open the book, I know how the clock read for me, and now we’re telling you the same thing. It’s repetition.  It’s how we learn.

 

It’s also just like a clock.  I mean lets face it.  A clock is a circle. The hands aren’t going anywhere new.

 

“Tick-tock, tick-tock, do you know what time is five o’clock?”

 

It’s happy hour.  It’s one way people get by.  It’s one way of spending time.  Happy hour is broken into two parts: half food half drink.  My sister’s book didn’t include half hours, or happy hours for that matter. Thank God; I couldn’t have done 24 pages of drunken stammering.  Happy hour also serves a third purpose and you don’t even need to eat or drink to partake.  It gets you out. It offers you a distraction from the routine.  Whether it’s eye candy or touching reality, you’re getting out of the past.  That’s important.  The clock moves forward, so should I you.

 

“Tick-tock, tick-tock, this is how you skip to the end of the book.”

 

That’s how I remember page 12.  It wasn’t how my sister remembered it.  Even at 2 she remembered that there were pages in-between.  I remember she used to hit me with the book as a subtle reminder that I was reading it wrong.  Even as an infant she was a behavioralist. 

 

As adults it’s nurture over nature.  We want help getting better, and I could tell the blogger was ready to start hitting people with books.  That’s ok, time will heal that too.  See, she can’t skip ahead, she doesn’t know how the story ends.  I don’t either, but I do know it gets better. It’s just unfortunate we need to go through the developmental chapters.

 

I guess in that way we’re like my little sister: we want our story to go the way it’s supposed to.  It’s just all the plot twists and character interaction that screws things up.

 

And that’s the beauty of time. Time has a way of clearing obstacles and straightening perspectives.  Like any book, life has many potential stories, but it only follows one course.  Time gives us the perspective to see that course and to follow it.  And when things go wrong, it gives us a moment to recover.  Time is important.

 

It sounds difficult, but it’s not.  It’s just as simple as tick-tock, tick-tock…