Watch Wearing

Time was (no pun intended) when I felt naked without a watch. If I'd leave home and forget my wristwatch, I was constantly looking for a clock to see the time. It wasn't that I had to be someplace, or that I might be late if I didn't keep track of the time. It had more to do with being in the moment... so to speak. I'd read a book called Be Here Now, by an associate of Timothy Leary, a Harvard psychiatrist named Dr. Richard Alpert, who became Baba Ram Dass. It's a long story that I'll skip for now. But anyway, I was trying to be here... you know... like, now.

For a time, (no pun intended) there was an early-morning TV program where an interesting and likable college professor conducted a class on the media. I wasn't taking the class for credit, but the man was interesting. And since I had to get up anyway, I'd tune in for the class. One morning, he talked about clocks, and specifically, digital clocks. He called them "the most subversive invention ever." The professor went on to explain that a clock with hands showed you not only the time at the moment, but where you had been, and where you were going in time. The issue with digital clocks, he told us, was that they forced one to focus on the moment, to the exclusion of what came before or later. Suddenly, I no longer wanted to "be here now," I wanted to be here before, or after now. I didn't care when, just not now. I got rid of my digital watch and went back to one with Mickey pointing to numbers.

Eventually I got out of the habit of wearing a watch altogether. I hate hunting down those little batteries, and because almost everywhere you go, there's a clock someplace... except at the doctor's office. They don't want you to see how long they've kept you waiting.