Clocks Quote by Jerry Spinelli
““The Clock on the Morning Lenape Building Must Clocks be circles? Time is not a circle. Suppose the Mother of All Minutes started right here, on the sidewalk in front of the Morning Lenape Building, and the parade of minutes that followed--each of them, say, one inch long-- headed out that way, down Bridge Street. Where would Now be? This minute? Out past the moon? Jupiter? The nearest star? Who came up with minutes, anyway? Who needs them? Name one good thing a minute's ever done. They shorten fun and measure misery. Get rid of them, I say. Down with minutes! And while you're at it--take hours with you too. Don't get me started on them. Clocks--that's the problem. Every clock is a nest of minutes and hours. Clocks strap us into their shape. Instead of heading for the nearest star, all we do is corkscrew. Clocks lock us into minutes, make Ferris wheel riders of us all, lug us round and round from number to number, dice the time of our lives into tiny bits until the bits are all we know and the only question we care to ask is "What time is it?" As if minutes could tell. As if Arnold could look up at this clock on the Lenape Building and read: 15 Minutes till Found. As if Charlie's time is not forever stuck on Half Past Grace. As if a swarm of stinging minutes waits for Betty Lou to step outside. As if love does not tell all the time the Huffelmeyers need to know.””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Clock on the Morning Lenape Building, Jerry Spinelli, 1995
The passage critiques how society’s obsession with precise time measurement fragments experience, turning life into a series of tiny, meaningless intervals.
In simple terms: Time division limits how we live and feel.
Question rigid time structures.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- daily routines
- creative work
- personal relationships
- urban planning
- education
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- Do you feel time controls you or do you control time?
- How might life change if we measured moments differently?
Timekeeping can provide necessary coordination and efficiency, which the critique overlooks.