Time keeper

Mitch Albom

SIXTENSIVE READERS

Discussion Director- Iriss Joy Rabago

Passage Picker- Daisery Bantilan

Vocabulary Enhancer- Diayanara Rose Cacho

Literary Artist- Rutchell Saplot

Connector- Cassandra Joyce Cabesas

Summarizer- Jonna Belle Mariano

Character Captain- Hilly Rose Guanzon

                              

“It is never too late or too soon. 

       It is when it is supposed to be.” 

 

Add caption

The semester is about to end when we have our discussion about our fourth and final book. At the back of H Building with few students because most of them already went home to have their semester break. I, the discussion director started the discussion by giving five questions to discuss.

1.      Would you want time to be endless? Why or why not?

2.      Dor learns the phrase “time flies” (when you’re having fun) from Sarah. Why does time seem to go faster when we enjoy ourselves? Is this always the case?

3.      When he was in the cave, Dor makes symbols on the wall to mark and remember key moments in his life. What are the many ways we mark the passing of time? Other than by taking photos, how do you order and stay connected to times past?

4.      Consider Sarah Lemon. Do you think Mitch Albom did a good job describing what it’s like to be a teenage girl?

5.      Who do you think was the “old man” Dor met? Was that God??

In answering question number one, all of us answered No, because we all agreed that if time would be endless people would not be exerting efforts anymore to finish their work or to do things that they wanted to do, we won’t be terrified anymore even if time will passed because we know there still bunch of time. Moreover, if this is the case, people won’t learn how to value and cherish every moment and memories in their lives and instead they will just keep on having a perspective that there are still chances, endless chances.

For the question number two, I am pretty sure that most of us experience this scenario. We always feel that “time flies’ when we are having fun it is because we are only giving our attention to the things we are doing instead of keeping attention to the time. This is why time seems so fast when we are having fun and likes.

          Question number three made us reminisce all of our hobbies in preserving memories with our love ones. Many of us answered having Diary as our way of preserving moments and memories in our lives. Me, Cassandra, Rutchell, Daisery and Jona have our own diaries wherein we chat down our experiences and good memories of our lives. It is our one way of keeping in touch and connected with time passed. On the other hand, Hilly and Diane have also different way of connecting to their memories that have been passed. Hilly saved pictures to her Fb account; this is her way of keeping the good memories in her life. Diane on the other hand, she answered scrap book. She said she make scrap book and paste some photos there and put it some caption like date of when it was taken, where it was taken and who is in that picture. She also said that to preserved memories in her life she just kept those memories in her hearts and minds. I have also shared to them that I am fun of keeping things that were given to me by different people like candy wrappers, key chains and such. Hilly and the others do the same too.

          For the question number four we all answered Yes. Based on the story Sarah was a typical teenage girl who has a crush on a guy and she really admires this guy. As we all know, teenagers this days are like Sarah, they are fun of going out and have a date to the guy they like. As Mitch Albom described Sarah in the story it’s just like he is also a teenage girl who are so busy having fun with her friends. He really put her foot in the situation of teenagers especially to Sarah and that is one of the reasons why the story became more interesting.

          In answering the fifth question, all of us answered that the man Dor met was the God of Death.

Connector

Cassandra Joyce Cabesas

The story revolves around the topic Time. Like how it is done in the a TV series entitled Pure Love, the protagonist Dian was in comma after an accident and her soul was separated with her body and before she can be successful to go back to her body he have to collect three drops of tears which are out from pure love but not from her family to know who are those people who truly values her. Both Sarah and Victor after being brought by Dor to the past realized that they should be paying attention to the people they are missing and that they have to spend time with them instead of desiring to prolong time to the extent that they will be looking for such ridiculous ideas. The part wherein I can see the connection most is that characters of both fiction stories have the magical thing wherein they are able to space jump, jump out of time or jump out of their physical locations such as a certain place or a body, the human body. Hope you find how I can see its connection on your own eyes. That’s all for me.

Character Captain

Hilly Rose Guanzon

Dor (Father Time)

Dor at his early age was a gentle, obedient child but thought deeper than anybody else and this made him different. He was the first person known on Earth who attempted to count, make numbers for he lived in an era when measuring time was not known. He was punished by God to be detained inside a cave because of trying to measure God’s greatest gift, the time,  for God knows what would the world and His creation will look like if time will be discovered. He was forced to listen to the voices of the people who were complaining with the time they have. Some would want to slow down their time and some wanted to drag time faster. He suffered for it for centuries without getting old. He was eventually freed from his punishment but in order to redeem himself, he must help to understand two worldly people who failed to realize the true meaning of time. One was Sarah Lemon wanted time to go faster for her own desire to meet his date and the other one was Victor who wants slow down time for him not to die sooner.

Sarah Lemon

Sarah was the one who was hurrying up for her date with a popular and good-looking guy whom she was waiting for him to notice her. She may not be some kind of girls with perfectly curved bodies but she is smart. When she finally got the chance to date his admired guy, she cannot wait for it and wanted to drag the time fast to the day of their date. What she thought to be a perfect date turned upside down when the man of her dreams cancelled it and learned that he was just tripping her, made her the laughing stock among his friend. It broke her heart so badly that she thought of committing suicide. For her to realize what she would be like if she would try it, Dor, who has the job to help her, let her see the future and the effect of her death to others. This made realize, neglected the idea of suicide and felt guilty of the consequences of her action. She considered what her love ones would feel if ever she did.

Victor Delamonte

Victor was on top of his game where he had a loving wife (who was neglected after victor success rose up), successful businesses and was titled as one of the richest man in the world but suddenly he was diagnosed of cancer and had his days counted down. For he wanted to live longer, he focused himself on researches for the cure of his terminal condition. Until a research for immortality pave in called cryonics in which he was going to freeze himself for later reanimation. Just as the time he was about to be frozen, Dor arrived in to rescue Victor’s fate if he would freeze himself. Dor showed him his future if he would undergo the process of cryonics. It was misfortune and miserable life waiting up for him if he pursue. Victor realized and decided not to freeze himself.

Ali

Alli was Dor’s childhood friend who grew up I humility. She became Dor’s wife whom she had three children. She’s the only one who could distract Dor from his counting and served as a sky who’s always around Dor.

Nim

Nim was one of Dor’s childhood friends who became tall and stronger than other boys. He became very rich with many slaves and started constructing massive tower. He was fascinated by power.

Vocabulary Enhancer

Diayanara Rose Cacho

•         Gravitate: to be attracted to something and therefore move towards it or become involved with it:

As children grow, they gravitate toward their fates. (page 11,chapter 4)

So did Dor, Nim, and  Alli, the three children on that hillside.

•          Humility: the quality of not being too proud about yourself - use this to show approval.

Alli grew more beautiful

                and her mother warned her to keep her dark hair braided and her eyes lowered, lest her fairness encourage the bad desires of men. Humility became Alli’s cocoon. (page 11,chapter 4)

•          Notch: to cut a V-shaped mark into something, especially as a way of showing the number of times something has been done

Dor?      Well .Dor became a measurer of things. He marked stones, he notched sticks, he laid out twigs, pebbles, anything he could count.(page 11,chapter 4)

•         Feeble: extremely weak; not very good or effective

Dor would never acquire wealth.  All the goats , sheep and oxen belonged to his brothers or his father, who often swatted Dor or wasting his time with silly measures. His mother cried when she saw him hunched over his work. She felt the gods had left him feeble.

(chapter 6, page 17)

•         Dabbled: to do something or be involved in something in a way that is not very serious`               

History does not show it, but as Dor grew older, he dabbled in every form of time measurement that science woud later credit to others.

(chapter 6, page 17)

•         Swaddling: wrap a baby tightly in a blanket to restrict movement

Dor continued his measuring, using bones, sticks, the sun , moon and stars. It was the only thing that made him feel produtive .Alli grew withdrawn. One night Dor saw her hugging their son’s swaddling blanket and staring at the floor.(chapter 11, page 31).

•         Gouge: to make a deep hole or cut in the surface of something

Unlike the sun, whiuch looked the same every day, the changing moon gave for somethin to count, and he gouged hales on clay tablets until he noticed a pattern. (chapter 13, page 33).

•         Lethargy/Lethargic: feeling as if you have no energy and no interest in doing anything

Until finally, at some unmarked point in his purgatory, Dor shook the lethargy of his darkness, sharpened the edge of a small rock and began to carve on the walls. (Chapter 26, page 70).

•         Swat: to crush, slap, hit

•         Meager: too small and is much less than you need

•         Withdrawn: very shy and quiet, and concerned only about your own thoughts

•         Nomad: a member of a tribe that travels from place to place instead of living in one place all the time

•         Sustenance: food that people or animals need in order to live; when something is made to continue

•         Baffle: if something baffles you, you can’t understand or explain it

•         Rue = to wish that you had not done something

•         Regret is a synonym

•         Laconic: using only a few words to say something

•         Steadfast: faithful and very loyal  
 Stalactites: are the formations that hang from the ceilings of caves like icicles.

•                   Gape: to look at something for a long time, especially with your mouth open, because you      are very surprised or shocked

•                  Penance: something that you must do to show that you are sorry for something you have done wrong

•                Bequeath: to pass knowledge, customs etc to people who come after you or live after you

Summarizer

Jonna Belle Mariano

Six thousand of years ago, time did not exist. Time cannot be measured.

When Dor was still a child, he was interested in measuring moments until he grew old. His interest in measuring moments grew.  When his wife Alli was about to die because of a strange disease, he wasn’t to control the time. He wanted to stop the time and keep Alli live forever. Because of desperation, he climbed the tower to the gods to try and make them stop the time. This tower was called the Tower of Babel.

There were consequences when once humans realized that they could measure the time and that consequence would be, no end for the pain that the time cause. Dor was punished because of it and his punishment would be, he must spend eternity in a cave. Where he can heard voices of the people who want more time, or less time, or for the time to stop.

Six thousand years had passed and Dor was released from his imprisonment. He must help two people who cant understand the meaning of time. There were Sarah Lemon and Victor Delamonte.

Sarah is a self conscious teenage who wants time to speed up. She can’t wait for the big date where she can spend together with what she thinks is the perfect boy. Her ideas about love were terribly amiss when the boy cancels on her multiple times and eventually humiliates her in front of all his friends. Due to her parent’s divorce and being emotionally tired, she can’t go on with her life and plans to commit suicide.

Victor is the fourteenth-richest man in the world but he is unfortunate victim of a tumor and kidney failure. He knows the only thing that can ruin his good fortune is his health, and he spares no effort trying to find a cure. However, he is pronounced to die in a short time. Victor needs time to slow down. He tries to achieve immortality by turning to cryonics, or the freezing of a person for later reanimation, to save himself and his fortune.

    By watching each of their lives, Dor tries to understand how he is supposed to help them. He doesn't know what to do, but the opportunity presents itself in due time. They all come to understand what time truly is.

Passage Picker

Daisery Bantilan

“A desperate heart means seducing the mind”

-what your heart5 wants to say or express it leads or tempts your mind to what u feel.

“Our God is the only one who can write the end of your story”

-God knows everything on what will happen to our lives.

Literary Artist

Rutchell Saplot