You Can't Coach That

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Earlier this morning I was listening to a song called Afternoons and Coffeespoons by Crash Test Dummies. It’s a song about getting old and the advancement of time. The chorus goes like this:

Afternoons will be measured out
Measured out, measured with
Coffeespoons and T.S. Eliot

This got me thinking about how we mark the passage of time and particularly how this changes as we get older.

It is probably about the time children start school that they first become aware of time passing by. They of course don’t reflect on it the same way adults do but they do get interested in it. For young children the passing of time is in fact something to be excited about, something to look forward to. Princess number 2 is in grade 1. She has also just lost her second tooth. Monumentous occasions such as these are the marker stones in her young life. Princess number 1 is five years older. She therefore has five and a half years of school as a reference point against which to measure time. Thinking about the future, she has her eye on how long it is before she goes onto point shoes in ballet. Her year 7 leadership camp next year is a long way off and high school is something that will happen a long time in the future.

I don’t remember the exact point when the passing of time became an unwelcome side effect of a busy life. I no longer find myself thinking “I wish this next 6 months would be over” as I did at 16 with a driver’s license just around the corner. Time has become too precious for that sort of thinking. These days I am more likely to be worried about time passing by. There are bills and school fees to pay. There are grown up questions like do I have enough superannuation and is the house adequately insured.

It is being a parent that makes all of this worthwhile of course. This takes the focus off thinking about oneself. Time is measured in children’s birthday parties, the losing of teeth and school report cards. Soon it will be first dates, part time jobs and decisions about careers.

Perhaps one day I will measure the afternoons in coffeespoons. Not yet though, there is too much to do.

If you are interested here is the song Afternoons and Coffeespoons that got me thinking.





“You can’t coach that”