A cliche a second

Time lost cannot be recalled. Time and tide wait for no man. Time is money. Time is gold. There are so many sayings about time, but how many of us really make use of our time. Whether we burn our calories or not, most of us burn our time.

Time is like a bank, it carries neither a balance or an overdraft. Every day God deposits 86,400 seconds in each and everyone's account. All of us are trying to withdraw more and more than is deposited.

Time always marches forward. No one can make it march backward. The more time we waste the lazier we turn out to be. Oliver Goldsmith says that a lazy man does more harm to society than a miser.

The early bird catches the worm. A person who uses his time properly will definitely be successful. When we are wasting time we are burning our candles at both ends, thereby hindering our life. When we spend our time uselessly, we not only miss timely opportunities, but our progress in life also is delayed.

When we put off everything until tomorrow and tomorrow, then our life is half spent without knowing what it is. Yesterday is a misery. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why we call it the present.

When we do not use our time distinctly then intemperance, intolerance and imprudence turn out to be our masters. William Scott says that it is better to do small things well than to spend time dreaming of big things that are never tried. When a person uses his time properly it shows his morality; if he deviates even an inch from this he is gone forever.

A busy man will never say he is busy since he knows that time is priceless. Even the richest person cannot buy the least of a second that has already gone. Let me share a few points about time which I read a few years back:

To realize the value of one year ask a student who has failed a grade.

To realize the value of one month asks a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of one week ask the editor of a weekly magazine.

To realize the value of one day ask the teacher in the front of the class.

To realize the value of one minute ask the person who has missed the train.

To realize the value of one second ask a person who has just avoided an accident.

To realize the value of one millisecond ask a person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

To help us gain an extra hour every day a clock manufacturer in Dallas has credited a watch measuring each minute at 57.6 seconds. The 2.4 seconds borrowed from each minute add up to 60 minutes at the end of each day.

Well, how many hours have you burned and how many seconds have you earned today?

UMA RAMA KRISHNAN

Jakarta