Straight Talk

The Telling of Time

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Letter to the Editor

The meaning of “time,” when given some thought, is a mystic sort of feeling, a little foggy for most of us to grasp. Time is much more than minutes, hours, days, or weeks. Its definition means the space of an event from its beginning to its end or its continuation. You can’t see it per se, and its measurement can be gone in a blink of an eye, or it can be long, taking years, even centuries. Time has its more profound meaning for those who live in its present.

You can look at the good and bad of times past, and hopefully learn from it living in its present, and further hope of making time seem wiser or more useful for those moving into its future, once those present have passed out of time.

Thinking upon this can get a little strange; we view times of old in its past, and yet we were never part of it. We can only find it in our present, yet time has always been there and stands still for no one. Time began when creation began, yet we are never part of it until our birth. Then time ends at our death – all the while time keeps moving on. So, our heart’s desire of our use of time should be in the most positive, loving, enriching use of time, for benefiting ourselves and others as well. But, sadly, many within our present time fill it with hatred, bitterness and lies. Everything which robs us as individuals, as a community, and as a nation.

Whether from education, leadership, or others, this affects us all and can poison us and our culture within the time we live and breathe.

While watching a documentary about when we were at war with Japan, Japanese leaders told their people that if captured, Americans would enslave their women, kill their men, and eat their children, which caused many to jump off cliffs and even sacrifice their families, rather than to give themselves up. This was countered by Japanese-American soldiers, who took time, and in their native tongue, to speak to them in a caring way and convince them nothing of this was true.

We have nations today who preach of hatred, even within our universities and by elected officials. Hatred and bitterness entered, with no care of unity to be found. I’m not ashamed of our nation, but of us who squander what time we each have in this disgusting behavior.

Time comes from our creator, and time should be looked upon in the most loving, caring efforts towards family, friends, and to those we encounter within the “time” we have. As depicted in the famous song by Jim Croce, “Time in a Bottle,” “If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do, is to save every day, ’til eternity passes away, just to spend time with you … but there never seems to be enough time.”

“Time” is valuable. Live it wisely, for love’s sake!

Deni Shepard – Franklin, N.C.