Columnist Peter Benton: Time is worth treasuring every day

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003 | 10 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

Golfers in general -- in fact just about everybody who participates in sports of any kind -- value their time, but the question being asked here is do you really appreciate your time and make the most of it? How about this as a scenario:

Imagine that there is a bank which credits your account each day with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day and every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to utilize during the day.

What would you do? Draw out the balance each evening -- every cent of course.

All of us has such a bank and it is called time. Every morning we are credited with 86,400 seconds to use in any way we wish. Every evening it writes off as lost, whatever of this time we failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance; it allows no overdraft; and each day it opens a new account for every one of us.

Every night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back -- ever -- and there is no drawing against tomorrow. We must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get the utmost in health, happiness and success.

The clock is running -- make the most of today -- and every day.

If you are still with me, please take heed of the following:

To realize the value of One Year, ask a student who failed;

To realize the value of One Month, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby;

To realize the value of One Week, ask the editor of a weekly paper;

To realize the value of One Day, ask a daily wage earner with children to feed;

To realize the value of One Hour, ask the lovers waiting to meet;

To realize the value of One Minute, ask a person who just missed their bus;

To realize the value of One Second, ask a person who barely missed death by a driver who ran a red light;

To realize the value of One Millisecond, ask a person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment you have, and if you share it with someone special, treasure it even more.

Remember, time waits for no one; yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery; today is a gift -- that is why it is called -- the present.