The Clock Winked

From John Torcello

The clock winked; or, so it seemed. Peeking out from the wall out onto the room; through the hands on his face; he resembled the 'man in the moon' with an upturned smirk of a smile and those big wise eyes.

There!...I thought...he winked again!...was he winking at me?, or, was he winking for all to see? To me, at least, that wink sent the message that 'everything's gonna be alright'.

I was lost in a moment; thinking about the very nature of clocks; their persistence to move on, while observing us and remaining relatively neutral to the world and events around them. Clocks tick, gauge moments passing and provide for us a sense of our time and place; one moment to the next; on and on. It's clocks, along with their buddies, the unstoppable 'time' and 'change' - these cousins - who work together to illustrate to us the notion that 'now' has just passed, replaced by a new one; over and over again...

That's how it should be! I thought, That's how it is!...the next moment never really the same as the last; and, a tendency to delude ourselves about the inevitability of the repetitive cycles of history. I did see that clock wink!, I understood his clue!...we can change our past; and thus our likely future by what we choose to do now...this instant!...

"What time is it?", as I lifted my head from the bar. "Bartender!, one last round for all of my friends", I shouted.

It was 3:00am and I knew I had to get home. I had to be in the office for a 7:30am meeting. Coming to my senses, in one gulp, I felt the last icy hot shot head down my throat and into my stomach.

Awake now...I couldn't help but come back to reality and think, with my sour stomach, about the traffic jams I'd face in just a few hours; and the money I'd be burning sitting there in my car, stuck in the ritual traffic jam, on my way to another day...another dollar. Damn those oil companies!

Fragments of the truth glimpse through to the man in the bar... albeit for a brief moment and when he is in a drunken stupor...

And, like the failed challenges of karma we all often miss... he wakes up (not wakes up!) to the so-called 'real' world (not real world!)... to the negative side of samsara; dismisses the challenge, and returns back to the repetitive cycles of work tomorrow, traffic, money and drinking at the bar each night...

If only he would heed the clue..the wink of the clock!...time...and change... That's the 'shit'; and the missed opportunity...the Dharma's there...he almost sees it...but...?!...