Posted on September 30, 2009 - by Justin Hartman
Why are Clocks so prominent in my life right now?
I’m struggling to find the meaning behind this but for some reason children’s clocks are featuring very prominently in my life right now.
Two days ago Colette and I went to see a psychologist about our eldest son Luke. There’s nothing wrong with him but we were asked by the pre-school to put him through a series of tests to see if he is ready for big school (i.e. Grade 1) next year. The meeting was essentially a report-back on her findings.
While the results of the tests were very interesting (more about this in a later post) the strangest thing emerged. One of the questions asked to him was if he had three wishes what would he wish for. His first answer was… a clock. Colette and I were both taken aback as was the psychologist. None of us could figure out why a five year old would wish for a clock.
During the session we also realised that we don’t have a single clock in our house. Not only that but neither of us own watches either so there is nothing apart from computers and mobile phones indicating the time. Maybe this is the only meaning around this but then some more random events happened.
Last night I received a phone call from my late best friend’s mother. We haven’t spoken in over two years and I think it’s mostly due to the fact that the context of our relationship was connected through my friend and with him not being there it was difficult to maintain the relationship when we both reminded each other of him. So, needless to say it was a pleasant and unexpected surprise to hear her voice again.
I suspected that the call was in relation to the sixth anniversary of his death (September 15th) but this wasn’t the case at all. She contacted me to tell me that she’d started making, wait for it…, children’s clocks in her spare time and wanted to know if I can help her market the kids clocks online.
Soon after the phone call I put Luke to bed. Every night Colette reads him a story before bedtime but last night I decided that I should do story-time instead. As is customary Luke choses a book and tonight was a rather large Dr. Seuss collection of five stories.
Luke opened up the book and said to me that he wants to show me his best part. He continued to page through to a particular page in the book and said look Dad, this is it. I took the book from him and asked him why this page was his best and he said, because the long hand is hanging off looking all squiggly and he was referring to the rather comical looking clock on the page.
Maybe I’m being nuts but these three, seemingly random events around clocks, kids clocks in particular have me wondering if there’s not something there. I don’t believe in co-incidence, I believe in things happening for a reason and everything has meaning but I can’t find anything online that can help me understand this better.
Hopefully you have more insight into the random events of the last two days.
I am a seasoned entrepreneur and currently the CEO of 
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September 30, 2009
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It always pays to listen.
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September 30, 2009
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I’d suggest reading “Fooled by Randomness” and about cognitive biases in general. Cognitive biases (such as clustering illusion, where you see a pattern in actually random events) are hard to overcome, even when you know about them.
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September 30, 2009
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Wow. Justin. This story resonated with me so much. So so much. Life does this to us. It kinda gives us a message without saying anything and then says “DO IT NOW are you listening?”
My simple answer is “time”. Maybe we all need more of it.
xxxx
Cath
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September 30, 2009
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Neil, I think I like the naiveté of feeling like there’s a meaning behind these things. It somehow makes me feel like there is a deeper meaning to life.
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September 30, 2009
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Cath, what is it then that I need to do????
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September 30, 2009
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Justin, it’s obvious to me (frm my perspective): please phone your late best friend’s mother, order a clock from her and give it to Luke! Clearly the little boy is fascinated with clocks. He wants one!
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September 30, 2009
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Tick tock, tick tock…
Can’t resist adding this one – one of my favourite paintings is “The Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali which you can see here
Anyhow, I think Margot might be on to something with her comment above. Could also just be a fascination stemming from talk about clocks at school or a friend who got a watch – these things affect the little guys more than we realise.
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October 1, 2009
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Darren, I’ve forgotten how beautiful that painting is. Must try and find a replica somewhere for my wall…!
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October 1, 2009
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I’m a bit disappointed in you buddy. I would expect you to approach this with logic and reason, not this hippy crap
I rate the fact that the clock illustration is Lukes favorite, should explain it.
Luke most probably likes the clock page as there aren’t any clocks in your house (Kids want what they can’t have) and in general, clocks and watches are seen as cool grown up items. As a result he tells the shrink that’s what he wants most (Like you would want to buy a car after seeing it in a magazine).
If it where not Luke wanting a clock as a result of the book illustration, you would never have thought twice about the phone call.
If you stuck on what to do and want to find some hippy meaning in it all, try this – Buy a cool clock for Luke from your friends mother (GatorClock preferably)? It’ll make Luke happy and you will be supporting your friends mother?
Lastly, be happy Luke is dreaming of clocks and not quad bikes
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October 29, 2009
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I remember leaving a nice long comment on this thread, but it’s gone
Did you ever get down to the bottom of this?
PS. Trish, top commenter, is a spammer
She visits my site too.
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October 29, 2009
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Chris, that’s odd… wonder were it ended up – sorry bud
I realised Trish may be a spammer but she looked too damn good to mark as spam
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October 29, 2009
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Strange! It happens though
Haha ya, I let some of her comments through as well!
So, did you ever get down to the bottom of the clock scenario?
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October 29, 2009
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Not really but we did end up buying a massive clock for the kitchen!
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October 29, 2009
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Classic! Since I read this article, I started placing clocks further away from myself, so I wasn’t so driven the whole time and it made a good difference