"Now is the Only Time"

Friday

I have spent the past week down in North Carolina at Carolina Beach with my some of my family. I've had a little time to do some reading.  I've been working my way through Uncle Tom's Cabin.  It seems ridiculous to me to think that this is where our society was only 160 years ago.  It's not really very long ago when you think about it.  Grandpop, my great grandfather, lived to 104, and thus I got the chance to know him a little, as a young boy.  He was born in the 1800s, and would certainly have known people that lived through all of this.  As far as we have come since then, we have further to go still.  My father told me again this week about his time working a hotel in Ocean City during the 70s.  He had to stand up to his employers who would not  rent rooms to blacks.  He told them that he refused to discriminate.  One small piece in the larger story.

In the story, one of the characters dies before having done several things that he had promised to do.  As a result, they were never done, and the promises left unfulfilled.  This was right after Miss Ophelia had pointed out that, "Now is the only time there ever is to do a thing in."  True enough.  If you have something that you've been meaning to do, maybe now is the time to do it.