The Rembis Report and Other Fascinating Topics - Volume XLIX

Time.

June 03, 2022

Time.

It is more than a magazine. It keeps tick-tick-ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, makes up tons of other song lyrics, and even lends itself as the name of Morris Days' bandmates. It makes days seem shorter and nights seem long, or vice versa. Some say it is just a construct or a concept that only exists because we make it so.

There are way too many arguments to pick a side, but one thing most everyone agrees on is that time is in short supply and there never seems to be enough of it. You may think that time is on your side, or it is against you, but no matter what your viewpoint is, once it is gone, you will never get it back. That is the one and only thing about time that is guaranteed.

So, when time runs out for somebody, and I promise, it will for all of us, we take a step back and make assessments about ourselves. It does not always have to be somebody we know personally. Most times, it is somebody we hear about on the news, and seems to have the greatest effect when it is an entertainer we love. Sure, there are lots of others whose time runs out before ours, and we see their faces below the headlines that they are gone too soon, but unless it is a face that we have grown accustomed to seeing, we generally go on with our day with only a brief pause for reflection.

It does not minimalize a tragedy to consider how terrible it is and not say anything about it. There are lots of sad things people don't talk about because they just can't. They just don't feel it will do them any good, and anything else they could say would simply be repetitive rhetoric of what somebody else said before. So, they stay quiet. That is okay. If that is how some people process, that is okay.

A constant reminder that life goes on is the clock. The one in your pocket, on your phone, on the wall, the computer screen, in the dashboard of your car, and up there on tall buildings, clocks are always reminding us that they are moving on, whether we do, or not. They remind us of how precious time is.

I got that reminder, as did many of you, when I heard about the passing of Ray Liotta last week. If you have not yet heard, I apologize for being the bearer of sad news, but you would have found out eventually.

This is not a eulogy. I liked Ray in everything I watched him in, and when I heard his interview with Marc Maron, I felt like I got to know him a little better and liked him even more. He just sounded like a really nice guy. My reminiscence of his many roles could not compete with this one by entertainment critic Gene Seymour. He really gives a nice send-off.

When I heard about his passing I thought about how young he was. He is ten years older than me, but I thought he was closer to my age. I was glad to hear he died in his sleep. That is, by far, what most people agree as the optimum choice in ways to go. That is, if you actually get a choice. The other thing I thought about, not just when I heard about his death, but any time I heard or thought about Ray, was his performance in the "Time Of Death" episode on the TV show E.R..

That is one hour of TV that sunk in for me. I remember watching it the night it was first broadcast. (You may recall that when I commit to a TV show, I watch them all. Yes, I watched E.R. for 15 years, every episode, the nights they originally aired, and made sure to record them if I was going to be out.) I considered this to be one of the best of the entire series. Click the link above to see that I am not alone in that opinion. If you have seen it, you know. If not, please watch it. I remember saying out loud that Ray would win an Emmy for that, and he did. I was proud to know that I called it, but more important than that, is how his performance and that story resonated for me. It was a real wake up call. A gut punch to remind you that you only live once and you better do something with your life, and you had better do it now, because every second you wait is a second wasted.

So, what did you do right after that episode aired on November 11, 2004?

As I recall, I was writing my own TV sitcom at the time, called Best, about a car rental on an island where nobody needs a car. I am sure that message was a driving force in getting me to complete the script and make it happen. We filmed the pilot the following spring. You can read about Best and watch it here.

Anytime I have ever started to lapse into lethargy, and slowed my roll, so to speak, I have recalled the message of that episode to snap me out of it and get moving again. Knowing that time slips by and that you only have a limited amount, and that one day it will be gone before you know it, helps me to move forward with my projects. So, hats off, and a great Thank You! to Ray Liotta and the rest of the cast and crew who put that performance together to make it one I would never forget.

I have only seen it three times. The original airing, then again a few years ago, I caught it on a rerun, and then yesterday, because I had to see it again. It is just as powerful now as it was 18 years ago, and some of Ray's best work. And in case you missed his cop show Shades Of Blue with Jennifer Lopez, please catch that, too. It is so worth it!

I think the most important part of that episode is the sudden realization the character has when he learns he will die, and how he reacts. I'm not going into greater detail to avoid spoilers. The title gives it away already, but if you were told this were your last day and that there was no stopping it, how do you suppose you would handle that news?

There is a spoken line in an instrumental part of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood album Welcome to the Pleasuredome: "Mine is the last voice you will ever hear. Do not be alarmed." It is a creepy thing to hear anyone say. How would hearing that not be alarming? It is most definitely alarming.

But most of the time we get no warning. It just happens. Sometimes an illness will give you time to prepare, to say goodbye, to get your affairs in order, as they say. I don't know what the statistics are, but you know as well as I, that some percentage of people will never see it coming. Some people who went grocery shopping, or to school, or to work recently, never knew it would be their last day. But it was. Over the last two weeks there were mass shootings in the USA every day.

Every day.

There are millions of people with just as many opinions about what causes this and what can be done about it. I don't know if marching will help, but that's what a lot of people will be doing next weekend.

In 2018 you marched with us to end gun violence. Four years later we're marching again. Mark your calendar: June 11, 2022.

I am not going to tell you to get out there and march. I am not going to tell you to buy a weapon or to hide the ones that you may have.

I will tell you not to shoot anyone. Not asking you. Telling you. Don't shoot.

You have a free will, you know right from wrong, and you know what you need to do with all of this information. You are your own judge. If it will make you feel better to march, then do it. If you want to scream and shout and express your freedom of speech with signage and online rants and postings, do that. If you want to change the channel, or shut down, and tune out, and let the protesters and the NRA supporters and the politicians and everyone else do all the work and just stay out of it. Do that.

It is your right to feel however you feel, and to express yourself in whatever civil way that does no harm. Do whatever you need to do to deal with it. Just don't shoot anyone.

Because doing that is a waste of your time.

One of the most profound statements I ever heard concerning time came from rapper Flavor Flav who said, "The reason why I wear this clock is because it represents time being the most important element in our life. Time can't afford to be wasted, but not only that, but God only gave us one life. Each minute we live, we got to live each second to our best value. Time brought us up in here, and time can also take us out."

When it is your time to go, you will go, whether you are ready or not.

So don't waste your time doing anything that is not worth doing.