"Enough Time At Last"

Yes, I’m binge watching the Twilight Zone for New Year’s. There is one episode in particular that has afflicted and haunted me since I first watched it. It really hits a nerve; “Time enough at last.” A simple man who just wants the freedom to read, but is oppressed by his life including his job at the bank, sneaks into the bank vault at lunch to read. His desire in life is simple-to read. The bomb gets dropped while he is in the vault, and he emerges the only man left alive. O.k., so he would have been burned up by the fallout, but lets suspend that reality because we are after all in the Twilight Zone. He finds a grocery store-all the food he could ever eat and more. But he is alone and desolate, until he spots the Public Library. He is overjoyed. He selects and stacks up piles and piles and piles of books. Finally, there is enough time. All the time I need, all the time I want. He bends down to pick up a book, and his glasses fall off, you can hear the lenses breaking. He manages to pick up the glasses, the camera gives us a sample of the extremely blurred vision he has without them, and the lenses simply fall out. 

Now that I’m retired from my full-time job, there is enough time at last. This episode had a particular resonance when I watched it this year, on January 1, the first day of my retirement. I don’t take a minute for granted.