Review: The Time Keeper BY Mitch Albom

5:06p.m.

I started reading The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom on June 12, 2013. And I finished it... later that evening. Needless to say, it is a short novel, and can be read very quickly. Regardless, the depth of this book makes it an automatic MUST READ. 

The subject of the book is one I have never thought about in my life. There has not been one day that I wondered what it was like when there was no time. Or what my life could/would be like if I didn't constantly worry about being "on time." I was hooked from page one.

"A man sits alone in a cave. His hair is long. His beard reaches his knees. He holds his chin in the cup of his hands. He closes his eyes. He is listening to something. Voices. Endless voices. They rise from a pool in the corner of the cave. They are the voices of people on Earth. They want only one thing. TIME."

I wake up in the morning, look at the clock. Have breakfast, look at the clock. I have to be somewhere by some time so I hurry to make it. How many times during the day do you think about time? It is amazing, to me, how our lives revolve around it.

The Time Keeper makes a particularly strong point when it mentions that animals nor insects worry about time. It is only humans who are concerned with it. 

Humans, along with animals and insects, are restricted by it. But it is only humans who constantly worry that we will not have enough time. It is impossible for us to accept the time we have, and use it wisely. 

I just glanced at the clock. It is 5:15p.m. 

Father Time. The Time Keeper is about Father Time's journey. From the moment when he started to measure time, to his being punished by God and condemned to spend thousands of years in a cave, alone, never aging, having to listen to the woes of people on Earth as they continue to want for more time. Father Time is finally released from his prison, but only to return to Earth to find two people. One person has too little time. And the other has too much. It is his mission to enlighten these people with what he has learned; to teach them to respect that we have no control over what time we have.

5:20p.m.

We cannot cryogenic-ally freeze ourselves and hope to awaken one day to a new life. We cannot take a long walk off a short bridge because we cannot handle the hand we have been dealt. It is not up to us how long we are here. 

Appreciate the time you have. Spend every second doing something that makes you happy. Because its not up to you. You will never know how long you have.

This book will open your eyes.