Time Passages

This entry, from April 10, 2012, is about one of my favorite books!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdcuJCuztZc
To listen to Al Stewart's Time Passages, click or copy and paste the above link!
I love to read but my love has taken a back seat to my other obligations/responsibilities the past several years. One reason I really like our current eighth grade class is that they love to read and amazingly, at least to me in a non-scientific observation, I think the boys love to read even more than the girls, which is not the norm. Maybe I should backtrack and state that I still read a considerable amount but is of the cafeteria variety from the Internet. Over the holidays, my brother, Dave, was engrossed with the latest Stephen King novel, a time travel story about a high school teacher who returns to the past, trying to prevent the assassination of JFK, allowing the US a happier future which is now the present. I started reading 11-22-63 on March 16, on loan from our minister, Dave Yasko, who raved about it. From the start, I was engrossed with the book, just as both Daves had been. I couldn't wait to sit down every night to some serious reading after my other tasks were completed. As 11-22-63 is close to 900 pages, it was an undertaking but one I attacked. But I found something strange happening as I entered the final 150 or so pages. I found myself reading less and less each day, seriously putting the brakes on my efforts to finish. At first, I thought it was because there were twists and turns I didn't like but then I came to a different conclusion. I think I slowed down because I don't want it to end. It's been awhile since I simply sat down and disappeared into John Grisham/Tom Clancy type literature and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. By slowing down, I've prolonged the experience. Interesting that a book about time comes down to the amount of time left in its life with me.

As humans, we have a way of dragging out the inevitable, especially when it involves something that we dread or relish. It might start when as kids, we do everything possible to forestall the going-to-bed routine/deadline imposed by our parents. Several years ago, I had a terrific student teacher aide named Ashley. Sometimes, there would be chocolate in the teacher's lounge or I'd get some candy from a student for Christmas or my birthday. Being a good teacher, I would share with my aide. I am not exaggerating when I say Ashley could make a Hershey's Kiss last forty-five minutes. When I eat chocolate, I tend to eat it in one or two bites but Ashley, like many other females I've observed, nibbles to make the candy stretch. I guess that's what I've turned into with this book- a nibbler. In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon speaks about the proper times for a number of things; love/hate, war/peace, scatter/gather. He doesn't mention ending things we enjoy. Maybe I think it will be some time before I find a book that can absorb me or maybe I think I'll just miss the calming nature of a good work, even if it's a thriller, which this one is. I have to move on and turn the page or the fifty or so that remain. And then, the movie version!!

Applicable quote of the day:

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.”

Albert Einstein  God bless, Steve Luke 18:1 www.hawleybooks.com E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com