Time and Tide Wait For No One
From Grant Bartlett, PhD
During these endless hours, days, weeks and months of COVID-19 induced social distancing, self-isolation and chaotic politics, other than Friends and Friendships, I have been reflecting on Time. It is our most important commodity, and it is constantly diminishing in spite of all of our attempts to control it.
My awareness of its significance was first revealed to me by an elderly (86) fisherman who was my boatman during my career as a Marine Geologist. I was 24 and managing a multidisciplinary marine program in the four Atlantic provinces. I arrived in our Nova Scotia base camp following a hectic pace in Newfoundland. We went to a small bar and I stated that “I needed another 24 hours in a day if we were to complete the Summer program. We chatted for a while, and as we were about to leave, he placed his hand on my shoulder and said: “Grant, my boy, there are 24 hours in a day. You get 24 and I get 24. It is how EACH of us USE them”. Wiser words were never spoken.
I have dispensed those words of wisdom to hundreds of students, family, relatives, colleagues and friends. One of my nieces (who is now a senior executive with Michelin) was so moved by the advice that she wrote a poem titled TIME.
TIME
I don’t have the time we often say
I said it myself just the other day
A very wise man sat by my side
And, the words he said will be my guide
There are twenty-four hours in every day
It’s how you use them is all he would say
Use them wisely to do all that you can
And your Life will go according to plan
You can do anything that you want to do
The only one holding you back is you
Don’t look at anything and say that you can’t
These were the wise words of my Uncle Grant
Follow your dreams and don’t ever let go
Where you might end up, you’ll never know
There will be highs & lows & pain & sorrow
But you will be a stronger person tomorrow
His advice was wise and from the heart
Where we end up is not where we start
We all control our own destiny
And, just have to be the best we can be.
Grant Bartlett, PhD is a Serial Entrepreneur, Global Traveler, Consummate Reader, Mentor to Millennials, former Hockey Team owner of the Calgary Flames who has experienced a myriad of Careers in Government, Academia and Industry. Grant has mapped the Rocky Mountains and explored the Ocean depths. He believes that when you reach the far horizon there will be another. Never stop Dreaming.