Matthews Family Herald

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" from Joshua 24:15


There's this clock on my wall at work. It's not like other clocks on walls out there. No sir, this one is special. Not just cuz it's mine (aw, how sweet) but also because the hour hand is always off. The hour hand always stays close to the current hour no matter how close to the new hour the minute hand is getting. So at 4:45pm, for example, the minute hand looks right, but the position of the hour hand looks like it's still barely past 4pm. I'm likely not painting a great picture of what I'm talking about but trust me, it doesn't look right.

But the funny thing, though, is that the clock is as accurate as "all get out." Once you get used to the strange hour hand, you can easily get used to telling what time it is. But other colleagues before me had already written this clock off. I found it dusty and with an old battery that had been dead for months or perhaps years. (Well, mostly dead. The second hand continued to twitch and that's what caught my eye about it.)

Everyone just wanted to throw it away. (Who ever thought I could make someone cry with sympathy over a clock but I'm about to.) I picked it up, dusted it off, changed it's battery (my eyes are getting misty - with either sympathy or laughter. Not sure. You'd have to have seen Wall-E, I guess) and put it back on the nail it once hung on. Seriously, there was even a little ring on the wallpaper where you could tell it once sat. I gave it a chance, the lil guy, and it has done just great.

Sounds silly but this clock is a lot like me. Maybe a lot like you too. I've got my quirks and I definitely have my weaknesses. There are many out there who would or have already dismissed me as unimportant. But if you just give people a chance, you might find out that they are very dependable, useful, and make a great contribution to your life and to society...like my very special friend, Mr. Clocky.

And hey, it'll save a little money too. I didn't have to buy a new clock.

James Matthews
(in c/o Mr. McClock)

9 comments:

haha, I loved this post bro!! I found myself chuckling and sympathizing with Mr. McClock. I'm so glad you gave him a chance and didn't follow the crowd, writing him off as useless, just because he's old. I hate that our society does this to the elderly, disabled, and slightly "different". What's so great about being like everyone else anyway??

I have to agree. Ole McClock is doing great. What's funny is that my wrist watch is the same way. Since October of last year, a button fell off in Virginia which is required for changing time. So, instead of getting a new one, I just added the needed hours anytime I looked at it here in Germany. Additionally, it was 15 minutes fast so I'd subtract those each time. Just when I thought I'd break down and buy a new one, I got the idea to try a bobby pin and it worked. I've since lost another button (two down and two to go) but I'm still using the watch and it's doing great.

haha!! a penny saved is a penny earned my friend :)

Oh yeah...good stuff. I also have been inspired by our adopted grandfather, Granda Ray. He's very thrifty at fixing things and making things go further by getting the most out of them instead of just replacing them.

Hi and yes, so true.

Also, it's partly based on being inspired by our adopted grandpa, Grandpa Ray. He's very good at finding ways to fix broken things and also getting the most out of something instead of just replacing it.

Reminds me of my computer. Maybe it's from the year 2000, maybe others would have just thrown him away. No no, he's mine. Maybe a laptop with a broken hinge doesn't sound very good, but this guy runs the latest software! (Well, actually most of it's a few weeks old....) S.M. Caps be the name of my amazing little machine.

I have it set up different than most people would like, of course, since it does have constrained hardware by today's standards.

I guess I have inherited my father and grandfather's way of not throwing things away, but making them useful as long as possible!

We live in a consumerist, keepin up with the jones', new, new, new, wasteful, wasteful, wasteful society. Good for you two and anyone else who has decided to rise up against consumerism and against being wasteful!! I applaud you!

Grandpa Ray says,"When I was two one of the first things my Father taught me was "Waste not, want not.""

He's a wonderful man, Grandpa Ray is.

Thank you.

I've moved my family blog post. Email me at:

jmattii2@yahoo.com

for the new blogsite.

Take care,
James

Post a Comment

About this blog