Your walls do a lot of work for you. The most necessary utility they provide is keeping the ceiling separated from the floor with sufficient space for you to live comfortably between the two. A wall that is unreliable at that job must be relieved of duty and immediately replaced.
Walls also provide a canvas for your individualism and artistic expression. A blank canvas is a lonely, dead thing crying out for a splash of color, any splash of color. You really haven’t taken full possession of a place if the walls remain empty. It is a frame without a picture, a camera without film, and a computer without software. One hardly sees the point.
If you find yourself staring at the blank canvas that is the main wall of your main room wondering what to do with it, might I suggest a clock? You might think a clock is anachronistic and duplicative since you can easily see the time on your smartwatch, smartphone, smart TV, and smart display. But none of those devices offer the ambient utility of a wall clock. It is casual and almost subliminal. You don’t need to lift your wrist or ask your smart speaker. You don’t really need to intentionally look at your wall because you see it even when not paying attention to it. But there is more to a wall clock than keeping time. Consider the following:
Clocks Remind Us Of a World Before Our Time
Time is context. There is no such thing as the present. What we think of as the now is a mythical slice of time between the past and future. We can only truly live in the moment if we have a memory of what came before us. We need that context to understand the present, indeed, for the present to even exist.
Nothing reminds us of the past like antique clocks. They don’t just transport us into a time forgotten, they connect us in such a way that our present has context. The clock that used to hang on your grandmother’s wall will recall her to mind and reinforce your connection with her. But where did she get that clock? What memories did it invoke in her? Who was the original owner? What stories might that clock tell if it could tell more than time? If you wish to travel back in time to understand who you are in the bigger picture, an antique clock is the ultimate time machine.
Clocks Remind Us That This, Too, Will Pass
Whatever is going on in your life, whatever the size and scope of the tragedy you are facing at this very moment, antique clocks are a reminder that this, too, will pass and a fresh start awaits. A clock does not require you to forget the past. But it is a stark reminder that there are still things to be done and life to be lived. There is change. But there is also life, love, and laughter.
Clocks beckon us to keep moving forward. Don’t close out the day with unfinished business that you could have put behind you. Don’t let the disappointments of yesterday deflate your hopes for tomorrow. Time may not heal all wounds. But it does normalize them so that they are easier to live with. Life goes on. Don’t let it leave you behind.
Clocks Remind Us of How Special the Moment Is
What you are doing right now really matters. It is unique in the passage of time. This moment will never come again. Everything about you will be different in a few moments as you receive and process new information. Your code is being rewritten by the second. And unlike with computers, we cannot save our present state. We can only make the most of the moment we have right now.
When you have lived in a place for a while, your walls become the canvas on which your story is told. An antique clock can be a big part of that story because it connects you with the past, helps you move beyond tragedies and disappointments, and reminds you of just how precious every moment really is.
