Published September 11, 2005 in the Hibbing Daily Tribune
By Aaron J. Brown
“Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.” ~William Faulkner
What time is it?
If you had asked me last week, I would have answered with the aged joke my mom taught me, “Half past the left mole.” A tiny little part in my watchband broke and my fancy wrist watch suddenly became a sharp, poorly designed pocket watch.
A small problem, I thought. Buy a new band, and the watch is good as new. I learned, however, the dark secret of the wristwatch world. I own a watch that does not have a replaceable band. Oh, a jeweler could have fixed my watch if I had kept the extra links for the band, but I didn’t. I need more tiny bizarre garbage on my desk like I need butter flavored toothpaste.
So I spent more than a week without a watch, relying on wall clocks and the sun for my time-telling needs. I didn’t want to just rush into buying a new one. I needed to find one that was just right, with 60 minute ticks, instead of just the big numbers, and none of those elitist Roman Numerals.
Naturally, my watchless period occurred during the very busy first week of school and as the final details on our house construction progress fell into place. It wasn’t like I completely abandoned the concept of time, but I could feel a difference. At times, my naked arm reduced stress. Without a constant reminder of the time, I could focus more on what I was doing and whom I was talking to. On the other hand, I found myself snapping back to reality on occasion, craning my neck for a clock the way you might do when you wake up to bright sunlight at a hotel and don’t know if you’re late for the trade convention downstairs.
I sat down to write something funny about my search for a watch. It would be a quirky column this week. But then I realized the date this would run. Today is Sept. 11. And when I realized that I no longer cared about the watch. I even scratched “buy watch” out of my elaborate day planner. I can go without a watch.
When the terrorist attacks happened – four years ago now – time stopped for just about everyone. For some, especially those personally affected, time has yet to restart. I was working on the news desk at the Hibbing Daily Tribune that Tuesday morning, and had just completed the paper when we first heard of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that feeling, or the time on my watch – 8:50 a.m. – when we decided to tear down the paper and rebuild a special edition. For almost an hour, no one in America knew if life would ever again return to normal.
A time will come when Sept. 11 is just another day in a beautiful fall season, where Americans no longer feel such sadness. We’ve certainly found our way back to political disagreements in this country, so the rest can’t be far behind. But still, the fact that we still feel such sorrow upon our memories of that day, shows that something unites us as humans, even with our differences.
Take off your watch today. I’ll wear one again, and so will you, but not today.
“To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.” ~ Walt Whitman
Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune.