Summary:
A fiction that cuts through the heart - like all the other novels by Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper is a simple and light story about time. It is about Dor, the first man to measure time; about Sarah Lemon, the teenage girl who wants to stop time; and about Victor Delamonte, the rich man who wants more time.
The book tells each of their story, how they came about their own struggles against time, and how their fates became interrelated. More important was how Dor (a.k.a. Father Time) is about to change their fates, by saving the two earthly people's lives and eventually save himself too.
Reflection:
How do we keep our time? Do we treat it as if it's gonna last forever? Do we treat it like a limited resource? Do we take it for granted or do we treat it with care?
With today's demands, we are more pressured than ever to move fast, work efficient, and decide quick. There are so many deadlines we need to meet - hard ones set at work, or standard ones set by our society, or personal ones that we have set for our own selves. There are so many things we need to achieve. There are so many things we feel we need to do. But sometimes, we have to stop and ask ourselves, are we making the best use of our time with all these? If we die at the end of the day, will we have any regrets? What things would we wish we would have done? What things would we wish we have not done, so we might have made better use of our time?
Today's demands also open us to failures, unmet goals, and sadness that can sometimes lead to depression. But today's times also open us to the growing possibilities of sickness, accidents, and death, always reminding us that our time isn't in our own hands. The books uses the traditional way of looking at things: a young one with a long life ahead, and a young man about to die, but the truth is that life doesn't always work that way. Only God knows how much sand remains in our life's hourglass. Only He can extend it. Or decide to cut it short.
On a side note, as I was reading the book, I had the urge to count how many times the word "time" will be mentioned. But with each passage I read, I know that that will be totally ironic. I don't want to be consumed with counting the way Dor had been, and forget about the essence of the time I spent reading a wonderful book and learning so much from it.
And now, for my favorite quotes:
"Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out."
"Once started, this desire does not end. It will grow beyond anything you have imagined."
"Soon man will count all his days, and then smaller segments of the day, and then smaller still - until the counting consumes him, and the wonder of the world he has been given is lost."
"The length of your days does not belong to you."
"Holding on to things "will only break your heart."
"As mankind grew obssessed with its hours, the sorrow of lost time became a permanent hole in the human heart. People fretted over missed chances, over inefficient days; they worried constantly about how long they would live, because counting life's moments had led, inevitably to counting them down."
"But man invents nothing God did not create first."
"Not aging is not the same as living, and without human contact, his soul dried up."
"Mankind is connected in ways it does not understand - even in dreams."
"It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be."
"You marked the minutes, but did you use them wisely? To be still? To cherish? To be grateful? To lift and be lifted?"
"You were one person, and you changed the world."
"Only God can write the end of your story."
"Remember this always: There is a reason God limits man's days."
"But a desperate heart will seduce the mind."
"Sometimes, when you are not getting the love you want, giving makes you think you will."
"But a man who can take anything will find most things unsatisfying. And a man without memories is just a shell."
"We all yearn for what we have lost. But sometimes, we forget what we have."
"But you grab a moment, or you let it pass."
"A heart weighs more when it splits in two; it crashes in the chest like a broken plane."
"Knowing something and understanding it were not the same thing."
"But common sense has no place in first love and never has."
"And when hope is gone, time is punishment."
"Magic came from the gods. And when the gods touch something, the normal became the supernatural, the simple became the wondrous."
"When we are most alone is when we embrace another's loneliness."
"But hurting ourselves to inflict pain on others is just another cry to be loved."
"Love does not make you a fool."
"Time is not something you give back. The very next moment may be an answer to your prayer. To deny that is to deny the most important part of the future. --- Hope."
"Ends are for yesterdays, not tomorrows."
"With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can't appreciate what we have."
"But fates are connected in ways we don't understand."
"We cannot stop what Heaven chooses."
