Halloween is coming in a couple of weeks, and in our town, lots of people decorate. I was walking our dogs when I noticed this inscription on a fake tombstone in someone’s yard: “Time is the master.”

At first, I thought it was a quote from a famous person, but after googling, I couldn’t find an exact match. Regardless who said it originally (and maybe my neighbor is just a sage), the sentiment is true though it can be taken either negatively or positively. If we think about it with a negative lens, it makes it seem as if our efforts count for nothing and that nothing we do will stand the test of time. However, this same thought can be comforting if we consider that the passage of time gives us a much broader perspective about life events than we have when we’re in the midst of them.

Take the ongoing pandemic. For most of us, like Baby Boomers and younger, this is the biggest hardship we’ve ever faced. But if we talk to those who lived through the Great Depression, or if we had the chance to talk to someone who lived through the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, they might have a broader perspective to offer us about life and hardships. Understanding that “Time is the Master” might help us see that our resilience is much greater than any pandemic and that forgoing our personal convenience to promote the public good is a positive way to help others when we’re all living through difficult times.