Big Ben

The Hands Of Time

How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. 

My goodness how the time has flown. - Dr. Seuss

It's my first European trip. With arms folded, I hold my gaze for a long time. Big Ben! 

My eyebrows flicker in recognition of one of London's best-known landmarks. It's the Great Bell of the clock at the north end of Westminster Palace in London. Stunning! I say under my breath, my eyes crinkling with pleasure. 

Everything is in perfect focus. The tower stands 316 feet high against a clear and boundless sky. A massive thirteen tons of creation! All my sentences rise at the end like helium balloons.

My expression changes to one of curiosity as I listen to a litany of Big Ben's credentials.
This incredible mammoth creation has been called the prince of timekeepers - the biggest, most accurate four-faced striking and chiming clock in the world. Its clock dials are set in an iron frame 23 feet in diameter, supporting 312 pieces of opal glass. The surround of the dials is gilded. 

I clear my throat as I read from the tourist brochure, Domine salvam fac reginam nostram Victoriam Primam. It's the Latin inscription on the clock dial's base. I let my voice trail for a moment. It's a prayer of supplication, O Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First. I assent to the invocation. So be it, lowering my voice like a child exchanging secrets. I piously raise my eyes to the sky. 

For an instant, everything is unnaturally still. Then Big Ben exhales a thousand sounds. The brush of the wind over the iron-framed spire echoes into a thousand and one tapping sounds, moving from place to place through the far bank of the Thames and Westminster Bridge. Its voice reverberates, as pigeons lift from the eaves of the tower, squawking at the intrusion. 

I walk along, a little starstruck, as the deep pealing of its bell sweeps the city in steady, rhythmic strokes. I listen, caught up in its constant, knowing pattern, the simplicity of it, the slowness. 

It feels like this whole moment is fragile somehow and, if it shifts too much, it might break.