199. Clocks

 

I am not an horologist by any means, but I really like clocks and watches. To me, clocks are mesmerizing with their constant ticking and spinning. I love the face of a clock with the numbers, or implied numbers, traditional or Roman, looking at you, reminding you that time is slipping away. Perhaps they are just a softer version of the Grim Reaper symbols on old tombstones, but I like that softer reminder that you need to slow down and enjoy what you have because it won’t last.

The way clocks have changed our language and thinking is also very interesting to me as a student and teacher of language. In the old days time wasn’t spoken of as precisely as it is now. You could tell the hour on a sun dial or by looking at the placement of the sun or stars in the sky but the precise minute or second wasn’t known or even thought about. By the Middle Ages clocks were being put into cathedrals in Europe and if you asked what time it was the response would be, “It is the eighth hour of the clock,” which gradually became shortened to how we speak now saying it is “eight o’clock.” Of course, no one had a clock in their home or a watch on their wrist, they just had to go to the cathedral close or into the cathedral itself to where they would see a clock. Sometimes the face of the clock had all 24 hours and sometimes twelve, so that is also when we began to speak in terms of am and pm. Many of the clocks (most are still there) would have little scenes played out. I know of one in England where two knights are jousting and the defeated one gets knocked off his horse (or maybe he gets his head knocked off?). I admire the stamina because he has kept getting back up for over eight hundred years now.

Of course, I have my own collection of watches to contribute to my fascination. I do not have a terribly large collection of clocks because I’m the only one in my household who enjoys the constant ticking from a collection of clocks. But I do have a few clocks as well. When I was younger in my early teens I wanted a watch but I couldn’t bear to have something on my wrist (that has since changed) so my parents bought me a pocket watch which I still use. When I got my first job as a teacher I bought myself a Casio wrist watch that is digital so that I could have a stop watch for timing my runs and my track athletes. When I got married my grandmother gave me my great grandfather’s pocket watch that I remember him using when I was a child setting on his lap. He would speak Nez Perce to me, though I had no idea what he was saying. Later in life my wife bought me a nice watch for our anniversary and another Casio that is a combination digital and analog for a birthday. I got a watch from the teacher’s union for being the lead negotiator for our first contract. I also have a Mickey Mouse watch from Disney World. I did have a wrist watch for every day of the week, but I gave one away to the new union president upon my retirement—an Idaho Education Association watch that had more meaning as the local president and didn’t seem something to wear anymore. All of my watches have special significance to me, but just the idea of a watch or a clock in general has special meaning to me.

I guess clocks just feel like the comfort of life, the comfort of time in history and the simple passing of each moment that we need to be aware of. I know sometimes they just remind us we are late, but they also remind us that we are. I love clocks.