A Cup of Conversation – July 2015

It is interesting how we memorialize the end of things. What is it about the last day or last goodbye or last play of the game that gets our attention? Could it be because we innately understand everything in life has an expiration date so the passing of even the trivial symbolizes something much more profound?

Mark Twain once said to buy land because they aren’t making any more of it. I wonder what Mr. Twain thought about time? The iconic American humorist was born shortly after the visit of Halley’s Comet in 1835 and predicted he would ‘go out with it, too’. Mark Twain died a day after Halley’s next visit seventy-five years later. I think the man knew a great deal about time.

The movie Draft Day is about the National Football League’s much heralded day of drafting the newest crop of gifted college athletes. Starring Kevin Costner, the film is literally ‘on the clock’ counting down the minutes of the day until the franchises have to make a decision who they’ll draft into their respective organizations. Starting with the first round, each team has ten minutes to make a pick in order of their rotation. All the while the teams are making frantic deals behind the scenes trading present picks, future picks, current players, etc., etc. It’s a huge drama but, just like the game, the central element is the clock. It’s all about the clock.

The General Manager of the Cleveland Browns (Kevin Costner) is agonizing over a bad decision-making paradigm trying to please ownership against his better judgment, putting him and team in an impossible position. He is on the clock. There is a scene where Costner tells the story of San Francisco’s Joe Montana calmly marching down the length of the field in the final two minutes of the big game to beat the Cincinnati Bengals in arguably the most exciting Super Bowl finish in history. With time running out and the entire length of the field in front of them, Montana looks up into the stands and sees the comedian John Candy.

Joe points up at Candy and says to his players in the huddle, “Hey! Isn’t that John Candy”? In the final seconds of the biggest game in history where everything in their world is on the line, Joe Montana takes time to point out John Candy to his teammates, essentially sucking the epic stress out of the epic moment. In his last snap, Montana throws a touchdown to John Taylor on a slant to win the game and the Super Bowl. Costner then says, “No one can stop the clock from ticking but the great ones know how to slow it down.” What a great line.

Albert Einstein would have loved Draft Day. Albert had vision to see a world of possibility between each tick of the clock (so did the screenwriter). More importantly, what exists between the seconds of the clock transcends time. I think Einstein knew this even before his theory of relativity (time). Greater than time is the opportunity to change outcome irrespective of the clock. However, we need a peace that passes understanding to play in that league and I’m not talking about the NFL. The next time fret, fear or freak-out speeds up your clock, remember there is far more opportunity in the moment than first appears. To see it, however, we have to look beyond men and this world.

Albert’s gift was to quantify time. Mark’s gift was observing time and Joe’s was to slow it all down. Maybe humanity’s gift is to see life between the seconds of the clock. It’s where God dwells and men do great things.