In the Nick of Time

In the Nick of Time (c)

By

Michael Casey

You save a life in the nick of time, my brother did it twice. I was trying to swim at Monument Rd swimming baths, when you start you need a push off from the side then you can swim. So I decided to try jumping in and then seeing if I could swim without a push off from the side. It did not work and I started to sink beneath the waves, or rather the water in the pool. My brother saw me and jumped in and pulled me to the side. Would I have drownd? I'm just glad my brother was there.

Thirty years later my brother was in the right place at the wrong time, he gave CPR to our dad and saved him. This way 8 bare weeks after  when he gave CPR to mum but she was already dead/dying. That act saved dad and led to me getting a wife and family, its all in Padre Pio and Me. So I know from experience just what "In the nick of time"  really means. 

Today somebody wants to connect via a website, just as I'm leaving that website, too many scammers, I think I'm being targeted. So he could be a genuine connection that could lead to all kinds of everything, if I quote Dana., but I've just left.

I remember Fiona once saying you don't know what's around the corner, Julie Dangly also said that to me, Dangly was her comedy name, she really was wise and good beyond her years. I haven't seen either of them in 15 years, Life moves on and doors close and revolve. So events in Life happen and can change our very lives, and hearts. I was watching 

Fame, the 2009 weak version on tv last night with my daughter.  One life was saved in the nick of time, then the dancer realises he has to start again, he'll just be a dance teacher, never on the Broadway Stage, but he'll be the best dance teacher he can possibly be back home at his parents dance studio.

In the nick of time we can realise this or that is the wrong decision, she's the wrong girl, he's the wrong boy, straight or gay or any other combination. Life, a stranger's comments, an overheard comment, can make us realise this is the wrong path, we may not yet know what is the right path, but this is the wrong path. Somebody once said to me that she thought short stories or poetry was the thing for me. That was 25 years ago and more, she happened to be a female priest I'd stumbled over, I tend to stumble into things, Mark H once said "you're a good stumbler." 

Another way of viewing "stumbling" is its guidance from the aether or the Fates or God, if you believe in any of that, most don't nowadays. The old film Sliding Doors covers this topic, I've not seen the film yet. It could be our 6th sense that stops us from doing things. We sense somebody is looking at us, so we look over the road or up to a window, are these messages from "inner space" ? We're lost in a changing world, Genesis just sung that line on my speakers, so I won't take credit for it.

Its our primitive past that still connects to our technological present, technology doesn't have all the answers, though Google tries its best. The wiring in our heads and between us all will always be better than Google, because it is the beat of  time in our inner minds.