just to pass the time: The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

I still remember my first book from Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie. It was so captivating that I finished reading that book at one sitting. After that, I look forward to his books.

I didn't read "The Time Keeper" in one seating though, I read a few pages before I slept every night. Well, the story was simple, but it did make me think. In this story, it talks about the person who first measured time (Father Time) was being kept/held in a cave for thousands of year and forced to listen to all the pleas about time from earthlings all the time, he didn't age or grow weaker. He missed his family so much but he was stuck there until an old man (god?) appeared and requested him to find two person, one who wants too much time and one who wants too little and teach them what he has learned.

So, Father Time was released to the world and he learned everything from scratch, the alphabets, languages, knowledge, and he just stopped the time when he needed it, when he stopped the time, everything else froze and he took his time reading, gaining knowledge, etc, and he moved from one place to another until he reached the city where he sensed the two person, one who wants too little (a girl) and one who wants too much time (a dying cancer patient).

From the start of the book, the story of the Father time, the girl and the cancer patient intertwined between the chapters, so it provided the back story for the three main characters. The Father time did not age, the girl wanted to die and the patient wanted to live. The girl was heart broken from a rejection of a boy that she liked very much. The patient wanted to live and he happened to be very rich, so he decided to get himself a cryogenic freezing and if the future has the correct treatment, the future medical team will revive him.

The Father time met the girl when she was committing suicide and he brought the girl to the patient when he was going to put into the cryogenic condition without informing his wife. The Father time stopped the time and all the people, except the Father time, the girl and the patient was frozen. The girl and the patient was quite scared to see Father time, and the Father time showed them what happened after they died (sort of). The girl saw her mother grieving for her, the patient saw that after years when technology so advanced, he was being displayed like animal in zoo where the future human tapped into his memories. The memory includes his time with his parents and his wife.

Then, they got back to the present time and the Father time collapsed, then the old man showed up again and every timeline gone back to normal. The father time went back to his time and rushed to his family, the patient stopped his cryogenic intention and went back to his wife and spent the little time he had with her, the girl called for help, and survived.

I think the main theme of this book is we should appreciate the time we have, the main reason we have finite time is because then only we will appreciate what we have. I hope 2015 will be a better year ahead. Peace!