A Grandfather’s Discussion About Time with Granddaughter

By John Gray

My 7-year-old granddaughter recently asked me to define time. I was immediately taken aback because I did not know how to answer her question. I wanted to tell her, “you are time and that time is when we say, “I remember when.” I wanted to tell her that time is the exchequer of all human endeavor. But rather than telling her any of those things, I decided to answer her question by telling her time is when she gets up each morning to go to school.

Later my mind returned to my granddaughter’s question and I wondered how one could explain such a simple, but complex, principle. My next thought was write an answer, memorize it, and give it to her when she would understand. 

She had to know time is the sun rising in the east and then setting in the west each day. She will know that time is a silent box of wishes and hopes. She had to know time is a never ending sequence of moments. She had to know time is its own story of craziness and fun, like seeing your grandmother dance to Chubby Checker: Twist and Shout. 

My granddaughter will be told time is a stranger in a familiar place and that time is its own therapist. She will understand boredom is time allowed to reflect upon reinventing oneself. Time is gratitude. 

My granddaughter will be told time is Maya Angelou’s dreams of justice for all and that time are  singer Sade’s songs describing the never-ending sex dance ritual of homosapiens. 

My granddaughter will know as an Afro-American, time is a skin color, and it will always be her first piece of identification. She will learn time is not loving, caring, or empathetic, that time is time, a blank space to be completed on a job employment application. 

My granddaughter will learn time is a road to fulfill her dreams, but that one cannot follow all dreams, as time has the resolution for dreams. 

She will know time is a manifesto like a score sheet of her decision making. 

Then, at last, my granddaughter will know time allows one to seek enlightenment. Further that time is always in the moment and has no yesterday. She will know time is fraught, fickle, and really only ever ask but one question: what have you done for me lately.