Sunday, September 13, 2009
*See the Preface to the “Saul’s Laws” page at the WordFeeder.
Saul’s Law on “Time” was appropriately brief: “Life is short.”
My father believed that most ordinary events were over-talked, that we spent way too much time planning this and discussing that – time we should have been spending actually doing the things we were talking about and other stuff.
It was a law he evoked more often than most. Maybe he knew something. Having survived a Great Depression, World War, three heart attacks, one upon the next, and a life full of the usual stress and disappointments, my guess is he had a well developed sense of how quickly it all goes by and was doing his best to save me the trouble of figuring it out for myself.
Mostly, he was concerned that I would underestimate the time I had to fulfill my potential, whatever that would be, and to realize my dreams and ambitions. It’s one of those things parents understand and their children sometimes don’t fully get until it’s too late – until opportunities have been missed, and choices made that limit our options.
As it turned out, my father’s life was short, ended too early by a disease today’s medicine might have cured. Although it certainly wasn’t his intention, his dying certainly made the point, and energized his son in ways I am still, years later, continuing to appreciate.
Thanks, Dad. Back to work.
-wf
WordFeeder 