How much will you pay for an extra day?
The clock man asked the child.
‘Not one penny’ the answer came,
For my days are as many as smiles.
How much will you pay for an extra day?
He asked when the child was grown.
May be a dollar or may be less.
For I have as many days of my own.
How much will you pay for an extra day?
He asked when the time came to die.
All of the pearls in all of the seas,
And all of the stars in the sky.
Our times are in His hands. We need but to surrender our wealth, our will and our own way. And I do not think it is a high price to pay. This becomes regular interpretation. Let us look at the above poem from a different perspective. I feel that the poet’s lament is quite strange. Although I did not realize much later in life, I feel that the only time we have in hand is the current moment. I would therefore, respond to the poem thus:
I know not of another day
I know only this moment of joy!
This much, however, safely can be said: How long did days seem when I was a child. Now, how fast days fly as I understand the concept of time! Time, truly, is a relative thing. All relative things do not exist in reality; they can only exist in mind. Now that I have crossed half mark of life, the non-existent time seems to fly faster and higher. In my opinion, life and death are synonymous. Both are not different; they are one and the same. Can we say then, time is a measurement of life? Life can be only measured with time, and thus time becomes an instrument. In our death this measurement stops. It ceases. Probably, an unknown measurement may begin. I wish I had known the movement of this unknown measurement! To conclude, I ask you all, what is your price for life? What is it that you can exchange for life? There is no universal/generic answer; it all depends on the person answering. For me there is no time. All I know is present. There is neither past nor future. And when I am in present, nothing else matters. Present is eternity. My life at present is, matters; past can never exist and future can never arrive.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional. What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
