Time
is quite fascinating. The span of merely an hour can feel like nothing
more than a moment when in good company – or like an eternity when in pain.
There always seems to be too much of it when it’s unwanted, and yet not enough
when it’s truly needed. Gollum, a character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The
Hobbit, presented this riddle in hopes of getting to eat poor little Bilbo
Baggins.
This thing
all things devours:
Birds,
beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws
iron, bites steel;
Grinds
hard stones to meal;
Slays
king, ruins town,
And
beats high mountain down.
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| "Mist & Noctilucent clouds" by Mikko Lagerstedt |
There are few things
in this world that can withstand the test of time truly unscathed. In my Geology
class, we discussed geologic time a few weeks ago—and it is simply fascinating.
The mountains, canyons, lakes, hills, valleys—all these amazing parts of nature
that we see every day took thousands upon thousands of years to form. We think
of many of them as being static and unchanging, but mountains come and go just
as anything else does. It’s only a matter of time. It is often difficult for us
to fathom such things, processes that can take hundreds of millions of years,
since the average person doesn’t live much past 80 or 90. It’s nearly
mind-boggling for someone that’s hardly experienced 100 years to fathom 100
million years.
The lifelong pursuit
of many has been to create or build something that will withstand the test of
time—some through literature, artwork, inventions, or revolutionary new ideas. I’ll
admit it, for the longest time there has been something that I’ve wanted to
make that will indeed withstand the test of time—something more solid and
immovable than the mountains. This upcoming Friday, I’ll get to do it too. I’m
going to be getting married to the love of my life, my best friend—I’ll be
starting my very own ‘happily ever after’. This marriage is going to be special
though—not a simple “Till death to you part”. No, we will be sealed together
for time and all eternity.
Yes, I know, eternity
is a long time, and it’s not going to be an easy thing by any stretch of the
imagination. But you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way—I won’t be
alone for it all. I would much rather face an eternity with someone by my side
to share it all with, the good and the bad.
As of right now, the
wedding is 4 Days, 3 Hours, 21 minutes and 25 seconds away, and then that whole
time thing comes up again. We’ve been engaged for about three months now, and
though at the beginning of the three months it seemed we had an eternity before
we were to be married, it’s all flown by so fast it’s hard to grasp. Now the
days are down to single digits, and time seems to have stopped. It’s only a few
days away, but it still seems so far off. Funny how time works like that, isn’t
it?
Image from https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h-9xrTXQDgw/ToG3oLO_u5I/AAAAAAAAECc/NFoSzhwIsFM/s950/mistnotctilucent.jpg
Image from https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h-9xrTXQDgw/ToG3oLO_u5I/AAAAAAAAECc/NFoSzhwIsFM/s950/mistnotctilucent.jpg
