Clock Work
I hate watches with a passion. Oh I need one wherever I go, but I hate them. People live by them (myself included) and somehow survive the day without taking out innocent bystanders in the process. Living in a city of five million people has only accelerated my position that people need to travel to the nearest body of water and throw every clock in their house into it. The only problem with that philosophy is that 1) most watches are water-proof (damn the inventors!) and 2) it wouldn't do any good.
Now as a gay man, one would think that I wouldn't care about watches because most gay men don't seem to have the concept that being at a place by a certain time actually means just that.  It's kind of like organizer books for us gay men, but at least most times we're smart enough to get one with days of the week rather than dates.  Sometimes I think that most gay men get the idea of the time of life, but then I am reminded that no, really they are just late all the time.
Everyone rushes from here to there without a moment in-between that I almost become dizzy watching them.  Oh I have from time to time tried to race them at their own game, but then reality sinks in and I realize that there is really no point to all the rush.  It's like the angry person waiting for the subway.  Oh he grumbles that the subway is late and swears up a storm when he finally enters the doors of his train.  What really is the point of swearing a train (or its conductor)?  He's not the one that is late, the angry man is and that's tough luck that you took an extra five seconds checking your internet porn before you left the office.
We have become so immersed into the thought that watches are the bearers of time that we have forgotten that we really are the bearers.  Time is like age, it's only a state of mind.  Sure it's important to get to our appointments on time and meet our friends at the appropriate time, but this has nothing to do with being late.  This is the sheer act of being polite to the people around us.
We are the bearers of time and we must somehow justify it by filling our days up with activities.  Rarely however do we fill that space with moments of reflection.  These are the moments when for a slight period of timelessness, we slow down and almost come to a complete stop.  A line in a song comes to mind that we can go fast, slow and stall, but no reverse.  If we slow down, we won't get that time back, but then why would we want to?  We have so much to look forward to when the day comes to an end with the beginning of another new day.
Okay a tad bit metaphysical and maybe a little too much philosophy for even me, but it's true.  Entering a subway at five o'clock and you'll see what I mean.  We all rush home as fast as we can, but rarely do we know why.  Sit down on a bench while the others race by you and think about it.  When you know why you should be going home and appreciate that, get on the train.  The clock may always be ticking, but that doesn't mean we have to move at the same speed.  We should be glad we have our watches to know how much time we have left instead of seeing how much time is lost.