”Forever is composed of nows”
When I went to get the paper, I could smell the ocean. I don’t live near the ocean, but some mornings everything is right for that wonderful smell to fill the air. I stood outside for a while. Today is another lovely fall day. The morning is chilly as fall mornings are. We have muted sunlight and a blue sky. Today will be in the 60’s.
Yesterday I hauled the storm door from the cellar to the kitchen. It is cold at night, and because I have to keep the door open so the dogs can come and go through the dog door, it was time. I had to move the door corner to corner to get it upstairs as it was heavy to lift. The difficult part was holding it to get it in the door, but I was successful. I think the bit of cursing helped. Other than my uke lesson, that was the only thing I did all day.
I had an aunt who was a nun, my father’s older sister. We used to have to visit her once a year in Connecticut. We’d wear our church clothes. We’d stop at a brick gas/relief station close to the convent where she lived. My mother would make sure hair was brushed and faces were clean. I remember in the convent we always sat in the living room. The convent was quiet. The visit was awkward. We didn’t have much to say to each other. She’d take us to her school to see her classroom. At some point another nun would bring cookies and milk for us and coffee for my father. My mother never drank coffee. I was never fond of my aunt. I don’t think any of us were.
I remember my first grade nun, Sister Redempta. She was scary. None of us dared to talk. We’d sit with hands folded on our desks just as she told us to do. There were so many of us the classroom was filled with long rows of desks. The room had two doors. One led to the cloakroom and the other to the hall. We were on the first floor. I always thought the school day was never ending. I was six.
When I was a young kid, I didn’t think of time as intervals, as seconds, minutes or hours. Time was a block. It was distance. I counted it in days. How many days until Saturday, until Christmas, until summer?
Two of my former students and I are meeting for lunch. We reconnected at their fiftieth class reunion a few weeks back. We’ll catch up today.
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October 3, 2024 at 3:15 pm
Hi Kat,
Today is not only clear with a high temperature predicted at 92°, but it’s also the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Observant Jews believe it’s the date of creation. 5785. Happy birthday world! Because of the Covid Pandemic, and the internet, we now watch the entire Rosh Hashanah service on TV, direct from the Central Synagogue in NYC.
Your observation about the passage of time as a kid, rings true. Even after learning how to tell time, owning a Mickey Mouse watch, and being able to read the calendar, I didn’t really understand time other than days until major events. For some reason, which drives my wife nuts, is that I look at my watch regularly. I do it several times a hour. She will ask me, what am I expecting, or who’s texting me, since I now wear an Apple Watch. What she doesn’t get, is that it’s a habit from being a pilot for fifty years.
Everything that has to do with aviation is based on time. She also doesn’t understand my desire to watch the weather on TV nightly because after time, the next priority is weather. After nearly 39 years of marriage, she still puts my water glass on the right side of my dinner plate on the table. I have been a southpaw forever. 🙂 Habits are hard to break. She’s also the most right handed person I ever knew. Her left hand is just an appendage.
October 3, 2024 at 9:18 pm
Hi Bob,
I remember my grandmother had to start watching the mass on TV when it got difficult for her to get to church. She used to sit holding her prayer book.
My house was cold when I woke up, only 64°. Outside was warmer. It stayed a nice day today. I had lunch at a restaurant by the harbor. It was a perfect day for that. The seafood was delicious.
I don’t even wear a watch. The last time I did was when I was in Ghana where there were no bells to start or end classes. I always leave early enough to get where I am going on time with time to spare. Besides, if I had a watch, I’d get irritated waiting for appointments running late.
I check the weather in the morning. That’s about it for the day.
October 3, 2024 at 3:32 pm
I’ve sometimes imagined how wretched it would be for a nun who didn’t relate to young children to be given that job. No doubt some of them tried to sublimate the unhappiness as one of the necessary burdens of their vocation, but it’s really a raw deal for both teacher and student. I had a good friend who worked in a public system and loved teaching high school, but absolutely wouldn’t have taken the younger grades.
October 3, 2024 at 8:46 pm
Rowen,
I student taught at the middle school level. They were nice enough but just too young. I wanted contradictions, insights and far more than the younger kids could give.
Most of the nuns I had were pleasant enough. I really liked the ones I had in high school. They, for the most part, were excellent teachers.
My aunt was just an unpleasant person. I think as a non-nun she would have been the same.