7: On The Greediest Thief

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Late one afternoon, at the lake by the town, Cliff stood on the shore and watched his setting star in the still water’s mirror.  Just beyond the sky’s reflection, he noticed a deflated young man of about 24 sitting on the lake’s opposite end. Cliff went to the young man and spoke thus:

“Young man, what has you down? Where has your youthful vigor gone?  Who is its thief?”

“Time is the thief, the thief of all thieves!

Time steals every thing from every one.

I’ve come to this mirroring lake to see only myself, for that's all I have left.

Even now, watch time pull the sun into its bag of all things: another day is gone!

Time won't even let me see myself, watch the water grow dark, its reflection flees with the day that is stolen.

Oh, a day more of my life! Stolen by the greediest thief!”

“Friend!  What's this you say? A day of your life?

You have it all wrong!

Your life is the day, and you stand in its morning!

You are in the morning of your life!

You young man, love this morning, for you have a full day to walk with yet. 

Friend! Praise time, that thief of all thieves, for it has not yet stolen your morning!”

“Cliff, it only has not yet stolen it from weariness of carrying the heavy bag overspilling with what it has stolen.

But I know that time, it will empty its bag and come back for the rest!

And I also know the day, its morning’s at ten, then look at a clock�"a clock, a tracker of theft!�"and its already jumped to noon, then look again and the world is dark!

Time, that thief, it knows no moderation.

It takes all that it can and tugs at the sun and pushes the moon!

Time speeds decay and murders the day!”

“Time speeds decay for what's too weakened to stay!

Time murders the day, but for a new one, makes way!

Learn to see time as it sees you: indifferently.

Time can be conquered, but it also can conquer.

Time loses its hands in moments of joy: it reaches and reaches, but bliss it can’t touch.

Recall all your joy!  In it is a world of its own, beyond the touch of time.

Recall all who have shared with you a meaning! in that is a land beyond time!

Hoard all you can, for time takes only what you don’t guard, what you don't lock up.”

“Why should I lock up anything, Cliff?

Time picks all locks, it knows all hiding places.

Why should I guard anything?

Time makes every thing a mirage, every one into ghosts.

Time teaches love only in retrospect: all of my loves now haunt me as ghosts.

I want only to touch what I once called my own.  

I want ‘those moments’ in this moment.

But who can pry apart the grip of time and dodge its fleeting kiss?”

“Friend, your words pain me, but please consider this:

Time is a thief, that much is true, but a thief doesn't steal gravel.  

It steals the most precious of jewels.

Be grateful that you have had such jewels, that what's past isn't gravel!

Be grateful that things can be precious enough to be missed!”

“But Cliff, that only shows how rich I used to be.

It only shows how dim the sun’s grown since the dawn of my day.”

“Friend, these are the last words i'll say, a jewel just for you:

Bear all that has been, for its all that you are, but not what you’ll be.

Recall what’s not gravel, how those jewels shone straight to your soul.

Love the temporal as a child that has grown, for time does steal childhood, but childishness, too.

Polish the past as a mirror which shows all that you are.  Polish, don't obscure, don't blur, don't see what’s not there, don't use it to scrutinize your looks over-harshly, don't use it to obsess as did that Narcissus; rather use it to make yourself presentable for the noon and night of your life!”