Tick, Tick Tick.

Recently I was impressed by a story by Nenian C. McPherson, Jr. :

“In the old McGuffey’s Reader is a story about the clock that had been running for a long time on the mantelpiece. One day the clock began to think about how many times during the year ahead it would have to tick. It counted up the seconds, 31,536,000 in the year - and the old clock just got too tired and said “I can’t do it,” and it stopped right there. When somebody reminded the clock that it did not have to tick the 31,536,000 seconds all at one time, but rather one by one, it began to run again and everything was all right.”

I have been interested in time most of my life.

My Mom was German and my Dad was a railroad safety inspector. You knew I had to be on time wherever I went.

Growing up, I would read H.G. Wells “The Time Machine” and wondered what it would be like to journey into the future.

Then there was a television show called “The Time Tunnel.” Each week a daring duo would find themselves in the past and having adventures.

Now that I’m retired, I’ve had to view time in different sense. It’s amazing giving the many activities I find myself engaged in and can see how fast time can go. I keep of box with my medicine, enough to hold a month’s allotment. In an eye blink I am filling it over again.

Time can be a blessing and curse.

The philosopher Lao Tzu would write, “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” I’m always impressed, when engaged in a good movie, short story, or sports event, (Go Iggles!) how fast time can go. When I’m feeling guilty over something I’ve done, or worried about a future event, time can take on an almost horrifying existence of slowness.

I am always grateful to Rabbi Fuchs, (Fewks) with whom I studied at seminary. He taught the class a parable about a letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Somewhat akin to a Zen Master, who would ask his classes imponderables like, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”, the rabbis would also challenge their students. “Bet” is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It looks a little with like a backward “C” with a little tail. The first words of the Hebrew bible are “Beresheet bara Elohim.” “In the beginning God created….” The Rabbis would ask their students, “Why does the Torah begin with the letter “Bet”.?

I was always impressed by one interpretation. Long before our letters were just plain letters they were symbols. Our letter “A” stood for “ox.” Even today if you turn the letter upside down you see an ox with horns. The Hebrew letter, “Bet” also stood for house. Bethel would mean “House of God.” Bethlehem means “House of Bread.”

The rabbis noted, that three sides of the letter were lines and one was an open space. Again imagine a backward “C.” Looking at them and their directions, the rabbis would teach. “We cannot say with certainty what heaven or hell would be like. (horizontal) We cannot change the past. (vertical) The only open space is the time before us. All we have is the now. …

Well put, rabbis.

It is so easy to get lost in the past. Perhaps we are holding onto a grudge. The past event can hold you hostage. Buddy Hackett said, “Don’t hold grudges. While your boiling in your own juices, the other fellow’s out dancing.”

Just recently I was reminded of a scene from the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”

Omaha beach was the bloodiest battlefield of the Normandy Invasion. The original plan was to have amphibious tanks arrive at the beachhead first, with the foot soldiers forming behind.

Unfortunately most of them did not make to shore and the first wave of soldiers were cut to ribbons. In one scene, the soldiers open the front door of their landing craft and a hail of bullets greets them.

I will always remember one poor soldier, who jumped over the side, being taken to the bottom with the heavy weight of the all the field equipment he was carrying.

I’ve found a grudge can be like that, I’ve even given it a name. “Going Right Under, Drowning Grief Experience.”

The key is forgiveness. Forgiveness is the gift you give yourself.

Time and time again I’ve seen, in the parish, how an unforgiving heart can wreck a life or a relationship. One person I warned in my first parish ended up bed bound by a stroke in her mid-fifties.

Ralph Waldo Emerson would say, “Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.” Like the rabbis, we realize that, as it has been said, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a gift, that’s why they call it “the present.”

I always get a giggle, when I study “Amigos Falsos” or false friends, in different languages. My favorite is that the word “Gift,” (Germans capitalize nouns) in German, does not mean “a present.” It means “poison.”

We can try to enjoy our days, filling them with learning, hope and serving others or poison them with worry, grudges and negativism.

I’ve always liked the phrase, “I’m just not smart enough to be a pessimist.”

Think about it, an extreme pessimist sees negativity around every corner. No one can be right all time.

What a bleak world it would if we had the ability to predict the future. That promise, from the tail end of St. Matthew’s gospel, “Lo, I am with you always” is all the future I feel I need.

A certain amount of anxiety is healthy. It has me setting two alarm clocks every Saturday night, so I’ll not be missing church on Sunday. I encourage you to do the same, amigos! But if it cements us to floor like Krazy Glue, whether with guilt or excessive worry, then we have a problem that can make us nuts. Maybe that’s why they call it Krazy Glue.

This week, consider the gift of “the present” and leave your house to boldly go where the Lord is leading you.

As Halloween approaches, Martin Luther, the reformer would speak of Christians being “Larvae Dei,” literally “The Masks of God.”

Each of us is called to let the light and love of God shine through our lives. Live in love this week, take that step off your porch and produce acts of kindness. Carpe Diem.

“Seize the time” and share it with others. Live in the now. The clock is ticking.