Keeping Time

72 this morning, with 92% humidity. Yuck. Slowly improving as the day goes on, but hotter.

Big Ben under repair, London, August 2019

The kitchen clock decided to quit working yesterday, and the bedroom clock's battery seems to have gone on the fritz at the same time. So knowing what time it is today is not as easy as it usually is, since these are the main two timekeepers we look at as we pass through the house.

It's quite odd, really, not knowing the time. I have noticed in the past that I almost have an obsession with the time, always keeping an eye on the clock as I go about my day. Once in my office at work I had 4 clocks. Four. And that wasn't counting the one on the computer, or my watch. I pared that down as soon as I noticed it, and quit wearing a watch. What was I thinking? That by clock-watching I could slow down time? Get more done? Be on time for everything? I don't know, really, but it did make me pause, and take stock of what I was doing. One result of that was early retirement--obviously, if I was so pressured that I needed four clocks, it was time to go.

But old habits die hard. Here at home I had clocks in every room for a while, even in the bathroom. Honestly, it's a wonder I didn't have them in the closets. I've been getting rid of some of them, and leaving others that I just like without batteries so they're only decorative. 

Today I find myself still glancing at the kitchen wall where the clock was--and noticing the perfect circle left there when we took the clock down, a good sign that repainting is in our near future. But I look for the clock every time I walk through the kitchen. Maybe I haven't changed that much after all.

Which makes me wonder, what if I just took out all the clocks? How would it be to get up when I felt like it, go to bed the same way, and go through the day just doing what I wanted or needed to do with no clock to tell me if I was taking too long, needed to be doing something else, or whatever? Surely there was a time when people didn't have clocks and only lived their lives by the sun and moon, light and dark? What if we did that now? Are we all so driven by clocks that we wouldn't know how to act without them? 

It's an alluring idea, I admit. Could I do it? I don't know. There are those events/responsibilities in life that require us to be somewhere at a specific time, sure. But as a retired person, how often is that? A few times a week at most, if that. Maybe the kitchen clock will not be replaced. I would probably go on looking at that circle on the wall for a long while. I bet that in London, while Big Ben has been being repaired and restored, people still looked for his face every day, just out of habit.

Meanwhile, I've kind of enjoyed this "timeless" day. I might just have to make a new habit of it.

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