Editor's Note: Happy Birthday, dear Horst - and many, many happy returns
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Birthdays usually make you think about time.
Ahead of my 89th birthday on Saturday, the 17th of February, I naturally wondered “where have all the years gone”. A lot of adventures and memories and hundreds of photos. A good time to reflect.
I wanted to be creative and use up old wall clocks which had lasted only a year. They all show different times and lots of numbers, and I created a “Time Square” - a parody, of course, to Times Square in New York. Here in Christiansted on St.Croix, a bar owner picked up on this famous landmark and called his bar ‘Time Square Bar’, which soon became the name of the square where the bar was located (which officially is Sunday Market Square). I created an image, although it is impossible to put Time in a square. Do my 89 years - 1068 months, 32,485 days, almost 780,000 hours - fit into a time capsule? Time moves on, time flies. . Mother Theresa said “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today, Let us begin.” It’s a good opportunity to cherish this moment in time.
89 years is a long time, but so short compared to space travel. I am in awe just thinking of NASA’s Voyager which has traveled about 24,000 BILLION kilometers during the last 44 years, and would need 17,000 years to complete the distance of a light year. I find it impossible to visualize. I am unable to say how many kilometers or miles I have traveled visiting and lived in many countries, but my journey brought me to this Caribbean paradise. I am truly blessed.
So I enjoy each day as best as I can and make the most of each moment.
Dear Horst, here is a belated Birthday Ditty for you.
ReplyDeleteHow quaint your take on Time Square,
None of us was really aware
You are almost as old as Papa Bear.
It is certainly a fact, to be fair,
That your longevity is due to Tender Loving Care.
While on top there is thinning hair,
Probably from the Caribbean sun's glare,
It is not by any measure a scare.
Your sense of humour is really rare,
As a friend and colleague on this I can swear.
In this dedicated Ditty I do dare,
Sincerely wish that from everywhere,
Blessings may come to you through the air.
Fouad