Time

[William Sackett]

I came across a little book the other day written by a man to his son for his 21st bithday.  Although I only met this man once, we talked at his office for 9 hrs straight.  It is full of quotes, poems, life stories from the sages of old as well as a few adventuress tales and life lessons of his own.  What a great gift to give to your own son or daughter.  Even though I am not his son, at our parting he gave me a copy of the book and said "I wish we had met earlier in life".  I think of him often.  Here is one of the stories that I thought might be relevant as you go through your days. 

A young man was in Belfast waiting for the boat train to take him back to Scotland.  He was in the pub at the station having a long conversation with an elderly local man obviously retired, about life in general.  They had been talking for about 4 hours.  At about 8:30 the young man looked at his watch and casually remaked that he would have to leave in 20 minutes or so to catch his train.  The old man glared at him for about 15 seconds then said "Another slave of the bloody clock".

Time is not necessarily on your side.  Time is a finite commodity.  It is used by some people, abused by others, ignored by most and blamed by many - but it is relentless.  Respect it, and use it, - but don't waste it.