I was reading this morning(03DEC06)'s Sunday New York Times, and, as always-especially during the Christmas season, there are a lot of ads for watches. BEAUTIFUL watches ! Macy's has a Michele watch w/a full cut diamond bezel and mother-of-pearl chronograph dial for $2,895 and a Movado sports watch for $1300 and a TAG Heuer w/a steel and 18k gold bracelet and diamond bezel and markers for $3595. Ah, Gucci has a full page ad for their Twirl Watch,sorry, no price,but with all the diamonds-pricey-for certain! There's a 2 page ad of watches available at the Tourneau stores: Vacheron Constantins Jaeger-LeCoultres,Oris,Mont Blancs Rados,Ebels,Omegas,Piagets,Breitlings,Porche Designs,Baume & Merciers,Chopards,Frederique Constants,etc,etc,etc.-they're all there , and sell for up to $250,000!-yeah, a watch that sells for one-quarter of a million dollars. They all do at least one thing-they show,feel or actually tell us what time it is. You can even get watches that are connected to THE Atomic Clock which is said be accurate to 2 nanoseconds per day or one second in 1,400,000 years- talk about being "on time"!

So what's the importance of knowing what time it is?

Got to get to work on time(that is of course,unless you're a member of a union that's pushed a contract forward, allowing you to be 5,10 or 15 minutes or more late w/o any penalty). Maybe you are a business owner that goes and comes whenever. Maybe you are on some government program and awaiting your mailwoman for your check or your letter of acceptance to be on the TV show of the Democratic Party's hero:Jerry Springer !-an appointment w/a doctor, a lawyer,a CPA, a wedding photographer,a tuba lesson,Pilates class,a sexual rendezvous,meeting your dealer for a few bags of scag, picking up friends at the Youngstown Airport who just got in from Florida,meeting a friend at The Flaming Ice Cube Cafe to split an Amazing Burger and an Oriental Salad. Maybe you are in the hospital waiting for the last 17 minutes to pass before you are able to get your next morphine injection.Maybe your awaiting DEAL or No DEAL to come on television so that you can watch and better appreciate Howie Mandel before his appearance at the good C.C.A.'s fund raiser next February. There are a lot of reasons to know what time it is-hey-ask the band Chicago, when they appear at the Chevy Centre next week-they'll need to answer the question: What time do we go on? and "Does anyone really know what time it is?"

So, I started to "free associate" thinking about time and timepieces. I looked at all of the watch and clock ads in today's NYTimes first section,NYTimes Sunday Magazine ,etc and saw how many other things that the advertised watches and clocks do from the lunar cycles to showing multiple time zones,altimeters,etc.

I remember being sent a countdown clock a number of years ago. An entrepreneur was manufacturing Clinton Countdown Clocks(some of y'all have them-I interviewed the entrepreneur on the show and gave some of the clocks away on - air). The clocks we set to countdown the days,hours and minutes until William Clinton would be out of office-no longer president of the U.S. of A.-cute idea,eh? He then began to do them for retirement,wedding dates,etc.

So, hey, what about a timepiece that counted down our life? A clock, a watch that showed us exactly how much time we had left to live-hmmmmmm....

Come-on, imagine it ! You can actually look at your watch,from a Casio,a Swatch,a Bulova,a TAG or Gucci---Twist-o-Flex,pleather or gold band or pull your fob and look at your Jean Deonna and actually know how much *time* you have left !

How do you think you'd live you life differently-hey-how do you *KNOW* you'd live your life differently?

How would our priorities change?

How would our words to others change?

How important would real communication be for us? Wouldn't we want to make certain that those we communicated w/REALLY understood us?

Maybe it would depend. Maybe it would depend on how much time w/had left.
If I looked at my *lifewatch*(ok, I could have called it a 'deathwatch' but it's a 'glass half-full thing') and saw 47yrs,11months,14days,7hours,23minutes and 9seconds,well, then, maybe I'd be a bit more relaxed. OTOH(on the other hand), if my *lifewatch* showed 6months,5days,53minutes and 41seconds....what would change?

What would be important if we knew how much time we had left?

I had a conversation w/someone o're the weekend about communication. I told her that too many times-as if once isn't enough-I've lost people in my life, w/o clearly,honestly,*heartly* having had expressed myself to them -people whom I had thought that I'd see again. I shared w/my friend that I was saddened by those experiences,troubled by them. Today, when I looked at all of those watch ads , I thought about that conversation from Saturday eve.

Now ,as I write this, I am thinking about my friend Jack Anderson who died almost one year ago. The weeks before Jack died became increasingly difficult for Jack,his family and his friends. I remember a few weeks before Jack died asking his wife ,Olivia, if I was calling too often. Olivia assured me that Jack "...lit up..." when I called. Well, now I regret not calling more often over the last two weeks of Jack Anderson's life-and now I cannot tell him any longer how I feel about him. I can only *hope* that I told him enough while he was alive. Issues w/my father and mother will never resolved-questions that will not-cannot EVER be answered, because I didn't listen to nor watch the seconds clicking away on their 'lifeclocks.'

Of course there are those who's 'life clocks and watches' are still ticking, but because their brains have been ravaged by Alzheimer's disease or dementia,they are no longer able to tell us how they feel or receive our words of love.


If you had a 'life watch', would you look at the time left?

How would knowing the time you had left change how you behave and how you communicate with and to those that you care about and Love ?

An accident,a heart attack,an illness can, and does take our loved ones and friends away from us-sometimes instantly. Knowing this we *still* do not communicate and express ourselves -openly and honestly. What are we afraid of ? Rejection? There's no feeling,no risk, no embarrassment no sense of rejection that can be as painful as the absence of the truly and honestly expressing our love,affection and care for each other.

Your 'lifewatch' may have years and years to tick away-mine might only have a few left---but one thing I know for certain: *THEY ARE ALL TICKING AWAY*


WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR ?

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR ???







~Louie b.

03December06

10:03p