The Time Keeper

by Mitch Albom

Dor is gentle, an obedient child, but his mind goes deeper than those around him. He is different. And on this early page of man’s story, one different child can change the world. Which is why God is watching him.

Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.

And thus did man begin to mark time.

“Ahead of his time.” That’s a phrase we use. Dor was ahead of everyone.

If one were recording history, one might write that at the moment man invented the world’s first clock, his wife was alone, softly crying, while he was consumed by the count.

“No. In this cave, you will not age a moment.” Dor looked away, ashamed. “I deserve no such gift.” “It is not a gift,” the old man said.

“You marked the minutes,” the old man said. “But did you use them wisely? To be still? To cherish? To be grateful? To lift and be lifted?”

He looked into a long mirror and yelled out loud. Only then did he realize he was seeing his reflection. Dor had not seen himself in six thousand years.

“You don’t really fix clocks, do you?” “I prefer them broken.” “Why is that?” Victor said. Dor looked at the grain of sand in his fingers. “Because I am the sinner who created them.”