The Time Keeper

by Mitch Albom

Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. 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.

People fretted over missed chances, over inefficient days; they worried constantly about how long they would live, because counting life’s moments had led, inevitably, to counting them down.

Mankind is connected in ways it does not understand—even in dreams.

“It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be.”

“We all yearn for what we have lost. But sometimes, we forget what we have.”

“With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can’t appreciate what we have.”