No, sorry, I know that isn’t what anybody expects or wants to think upon right now, we’re still in Christmastide, after all.
What’s so great about Christmastide is, it’s a “time out of time”.
Christmases follow each other, not the springs and summers and autumns in between, as John Crowley wrote. In one way Christmastides are “timeless”; in another, an inexorable mirror of Time’s ravages.
To the cliché about “killing time”, the riposte is, “Why not? It’s killing us!” “Time, who never goes anywhere without his great dog Death” as Annie Dillard wrote.
One legend has it that the great labor of Francis Bacon’s life was a talking mechanical head, the “Brazen Head”. Exhausted, he had fallen asleep at the moment when it finally spoke! It said, “Time is. Time was. Time is past.” Then it exploded.
Time giveth, and Time taketh away. Curséd be the name of Time.
How can something so evanescent as Time be so deadly? Another line which I wish I had never read, it hurts so, is from a Larkin poem, about the perceived speed and shortness of life: “The children leave like something dreamt.”
Yes and not only once, in my case. My daughter has been home since March! Nine months! In a few days she’ll be leaving again. Those nine months are as irrevocably gone as the glorious term of her gestation. Yes we biked together, we wine-barred together, we routinely exchanged affectionate hugs, kisses, words daily. What more could I have done to show my gratitude and appreciation to Time? I don’t know, but..I feel I didn’t do it, somehow.
When you try to look Time in the face, why is it always “too late”?
it’s like Faust, who sold his soul on the chance of experiencing just one moment which he would want to last forever! He says to the Devil something like,”If ever I say to the passing moment,’Tarry a while, thou art so fair!’-Then drag me down to fiery torment—gladly will I perish there!”
Do you know the story from Dante about Paolo and Francesca? They fell into (illicit) love during conversation over a book, and their punishment—for eternity! Is to be together whirling in a howling void, where they may gaze on each other but they cannot hear each other speak. So near and yet so far, while I’m indulging in clichés…(.but let’s face it, these tired linguistic tropes mirror our experience, or we wouldn’t keep saying them.)
Time—more and more and more of it! Is actually the only desire we have, as we realize when faced with danger, illness and obsolescence.
Why am I taking up your valuable time, Reader? Thank you for the gift if your Time, if you’ve come this far.
We love Time! We hate Time! Round and round in the mortal coil…
“O Time! Thou must unravel this, not I,
It is too great a know for me t’untie,”
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
Happy St. Stephen’s Day/2nd Day of Christmas – sending a along the partridge, pear tree, and two turtledoves. And, I’ve gotta say: As my pastor is fond of reminding us, all time is *present* to God; the Incarnation reset time – broke it, actually. A lot of the Church Fathers remind their readers that, in Christ – because of Christ – we’re in eternity; already ‘seated at God’s right hand’. So, all that we’ve always held dear is always present for us, in Christ, just sayin’….Blessings of the ongoing Christmastide to you and yours, dear Hypatia.
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Both of you, Nanda and Hypatia, are breaking my brain 🙂
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Why, Judy? Surely you are a mere mortal like we are, you must fear and revere Time….
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“…. are breaking my brain…”
Hopefully, lifting up your heart, JaC…This is a truth and gift to be *felt*, and savored, rather than thought over. Actually, the comment is also a ‘note to self’. 🙂
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Yes, dear Nanda, as a fan of Good King Wenceslaus, I know it’s the Feast of Stephen today. Does he get the first day after Christ’s birth because he was the first martyr? Like Thomas the doubter gets Dec. 24 because that’s the darkest part of the year?
You made me cry. I’m doing a lot of that these days. And it’s something I never do, but I mean, come ON with this year…..
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For certain, Hyp. These are yet another set of times “that try men’s souls”. But, as long as there’re “two or more” of us who hold this reality and let it shine in and through us – we are not alone. Another accompanies us.
As to the timing of St. Stephen’s Day, that’s probably a sound bit of reasoning. Also, it’s a reminder that the newborn King will offer Himself in sacrifice for us – and that believers will, in some way – be asked/called/motivated – to do the same. Thomas a Becket will come up soon, too, as a holy reminder that discipleship has its costs.
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I suspect this might be how we will all be feeling under Pax Sino-Tibetan.
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