In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, our protagonist attends the most frustrating tea party of all time. Sitting at a big table with the March Hare and a mad Hatter, Alice can hardly make sense of a single thing the two strange creatures say. Every next line is either a pun, a twisting of words, or gobbledygook altogether.
Eventually, Alice complains at their wasting of time, and it is precisely here the Hatter decides to have a lucid moment: “If you knew Time as well as I do,” he says, “you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him.” Once again, Alice is lost, which the Hatter finds perfectly reasonable. Clearly, Alice has “never even spoken to Time,” he asserts. And while Alice admits as much, she does purport to know this: “I have to beat time when I learn music.”
Finally, the Hatter’s face lights up. “Ah!” Here is where the misunderstanding lies. Of course Time, like anyone else, does not like to be beaten. “Now,” the Hatter explains, “if you only kept on good terms with him, he’d do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o’clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you’d only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!”
If you don’t like where your Time is going, maybe it’s time the two of you agreed on a direction. Ask him! Where does he want to go? What about you? Can you band together? If you ran hand in hand, I’m sure you’d reach anywhere in a jiffy.
Perhaps Time is not an invisible force we are paddling against. Maybe he is a dear friend, and all he wants is to be treated well. Stay on good terms with Time, and perhaps one day clocks will fade from your life altogether.