Time Flies.
Time flies when you’re having fun……. how many times have we heard that phrase or uttered it in jest to make light of an unpleasant situation? Used that as a sarcastic aside to deflect some of the tedium that life can sometimes amount to? It is a phrase that you hear so often and in so many mundane instances that we never really stop to think about.
Guess what? Time really does fly whether we are having fun or not. Every single day that the earth turns it is spinning us faster and faster through life yet we only seem to want to encourage things to go quicker still.
Growing up I always wanted to be bigger, couldn’t wait to be farther along in life, older. Being number 5 out of 6 kids I was always wishing that I could be the older one, it just seemed like so much more fun. Mornings were a madhouse as everyone tried to fight their way into the bathroom and out the door on time for school or work and dinner, well, that was always controlled mayhem which I could barely drag myself inside to eat before rushing back out again. Holidays were a rush of relatives and friends blowing by like leaves in a hurricane and before I knew it I was bigger, a teenager with only more things to do as quickly as I could. I spent my late teens and early 20’s on the road in rock bands well into the flow of life as it continued at breakneck speed. Then Jake was born and it was as if the entire globe suddenly screeched to a halt and oddly enough that was fine with me. When Jake was an infant my favorite time of the day was when Jake would finish lunch and get ready for his nap. I would lie down on the couch and put him on my chest where he would settle in and fall into a comfortable sleep to the lullaby of my heart beating, the world could have stopped rotating at that point and it would have been fine with me.
I think I first noticed how quickly time had passed because of the pennies.......
Perhaps I should explain.
For some reason about month or so after Jake was born I started to collect pennies from that year, 1995. At first they were easy to spot; all brand new and shining out of the change pile like the sun. I sort them out as I save my pocket change into a big jar and place them into a smaller one on my bureau top. Last year I started to notice that it was getting pretty hard to spot the 1995 pennies, they had taken on the burnished and scuffed look of so many other years worth of coin. The passage of time had started to take hold before I even had realized it.
Now I find myself standing on the side of the tracks while Jake is racing and encouraging him to go faster, the conversations that we have while running on practice tracks revolves around jumping farther, turning quicker, shaving off seconds here and there always with the goal of going faster.
Last year Jake was able to take his first holeshot, something that had seemed like it was going to be out of his reach for at least a little while longer. It was awesome and terrifying in equal amounts as we have all been treated to the sight of watching some racer scream out of the gate, get to the turn first then fall promptly being stomped by every other rider off the gate. So even though I was totally psyched to see him flying out to the front of the pack at the same time there is this unreasonable little voice in my head that is screaming “NO!! SLOW DOWN!” I find myself longing for those bygone days when Jake was chugging around the track on his XR70, hopelessly overmatched by the faster riders and two-stroke machines. It was safer in my mind although not nearly what Jake had in his when it came to competition. For the life of me I wish we could go back that way and not worry about jumping those gap doubles and flying off the gate for the holeshot. Well short of inventing a time machine which seems doubtful there is no way to go back there and as time marches on he will only go faster and farther scaring the crap out of his mom and I along the way. I am sure there are many of you out there ruefully shaking your head to yourselves and saying “no kidding pal, it only gets worse.” I know, I know but I can dream can’t I?
Jake then;
And now;
I guess all I can do is try to take every chance to slow it down where I can, talking and spending time with my no longer little guy, grabbing time firmly by the hand and tugging back with all my might with a hug and god forbid anyone should see a kiss for my son now and then. Life is pretty good to us though because every now and then we all get to have one of those moments when we share the wonder of life with our kids both on and off the track. Just like every now and then I catch a glimpse of one of those shiny as new 1995 pennies to remind what is really golden in life.
So don’t miss the chance to grab them and hold them as tightly as you can because before you know time has passed, the scuffs and distances of time will inevitably make their way in, because time really does fly.
