the wind-up clock

I have another story to tell…maybe this one’s harder to understand.
Once upon a time…there was a wind-up clock. (It’s my clock now, actually) It belonged to a lady, and she was very good at winding up the clock to make sure it worked properly. It seemed like a very good clock; it kept the correct time, and didn’t miss a beat. Sometimes however, she would wind it up so tightly that it would nearly break the springs. But she didn’t know that. She thought she was doing the best job that she could by utilising the clock to its maximum potential. Sometimes though, (whether accidentally or deliberately, I don’t know) she would shake the clock because she thought it was going too slow or too fast. At other times she would accidentally drop it. She’s only human after all.

So the clock kept on doing its job, ticking away and showing the time. At times it seemed that time stood still even though the ticking kept going. However, the clock got a bit erratic sometimes, and the owner got frustrated at the uncooperative clock, and was annoyed that it wasn’t doing what she wanted it to do. The owner thought that the clock was very ungrateful and unappreciative of all the things that she had done for it. She got angry and cursed it, and sometimes didn’t wind it up properly. At times she would stick it in the corner and not wind it up. But then later she would regret her actions because it was only a clock and she still loved her clock and thought that it should be given a second chance. It was not beyond repair, she thought. The clock just got quite confused and felt really unwell. It wished it could just stop working forever, and not have to tick anymore, regardless of how the woman treated it. Maybe that way, she would realise that she didn’t have control over it anymore. And the ticking went slower and slower.

One day, the clock maker came along and visited the lady. She started complaining in exasperation that the clock was not doing what she had hoped it would do. It was very erratic and unreliable and not living up to her expectations. She was very disappointed with the workmanship of the maker. So the clock maker took the clock home, and worked on it to see if it could be repaired. He took it apart and oiled it and gave everything a good polish and then assembled everything back together.

You’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. The clock maker really is a genius. I have the clock now, and even though it’s not the best clock that was ever made, I’m growing quite fond of it. It gets regular maintenance servicing from the maker. It doesn’t work exactly like those sleek modern expensive digital clocks. It’s a bit quirky, sometimes it’s not quite on-time, but I try to remember to wind it up every day, and adjust the dials to get it to show the time, approximately. I am learning to accept that clocks tick because we live in a world that is governed by time. And one day, time will stop, and we won’t need clocks anymore, wind-up, digital or otherwise. But till then, I will learn to accept this clock that I have, and use it the best I can. I can’t expect too much from it, but just appreciate what it was meant to do, and thank the maker that it wasn’t broken beyond repair when the previous owner had it.

Oh yeah, I’m glad to say too that the previous owner gave it to me willingly, although she sometimes still seems to think that she owns it when she talks about it. And then I have to remind my mother that I own the clock now, and not her. And I believe that the clock maker agrees with me that I’m a better custodian than my mom.

This story doesn’t have an ending yet, because the end will only come when the maker decides that the clock has ticked all the tocks that it was made for and its time is up, or when time-keeping is no longer necessary because we will all be resting with the clock maker in his house. And there’ll be no more tick-tocking then.

Maybe I’ll get to show you my wind-up clock someday. And to make the story even more complicated, I actually have two wind-up clocks! (but that’s a story for another time)