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Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Watching
From
left to right: grandfather, grandfather, father, father.
TIME. Hadn't thought to do this until I got my own watch back from the jeweller, after God only knows how long without it, and realized nobody even wears watches anymore. Everybody has cellphones. So what are people going to do in future generations? Hang on to granddad's last iPhone? Get all nostalgic about his final digital apps?
I dug out this little set of keepsakes because all but the oldest still tick (haven't sent that one for repair) and I can remember the elders of my family wearing their timepieces. Something of them still attaches to the old mechanical movements. When the forgotten things respond to the winding and start up again, it's like having the owners back, their time resumed, if only for an hour or two. Did you know that they counted seconds even in the old days?
And way back then, there were two kinds of time. My dad had a minimalist wristwatch he used to go to work and keep track of his business appointments. But he also had a gold watch with a chain that connected him to his past. (The fob that looks like a Phi Beta Kappa key isn't. The thing that looks like a cross is.) There were times when he wore that piece of lovely jewelry, because there's more than one kind of time. Something we've lost. Along with all the other things we've lost. Along the way.
He also started wearing, at some point, his own father's wristwatch, also shown above. As if its ticking was a continuation. Which I guess it was. Because when I wound them all up today and saw that they were still capable of keeping time, it was -- for the briefest possible moment -- like having them all back with me again.
Can you do that on your iPhones? Just asking.
