Dear friends,
March 26, 2021 marks the 155th anniversary of the Horological Society of New York. Reflecting on this year’s message reminds me of a story that will hopefully convey my thoughts on the past year. Dear reader, please bear with me.
A dozen years ago, my wife and I walked into an antiques store in Vermont. The owner, Egan, was in his 70s and immediately made us feel welcome to browse the many treasures he had accumulated as a byproduct of decades in the local auction business. By the end of that first visit, we ended up sharing stories and becoming friends. Since the world is a very small place, we realized that Egan had attended school with my wife’s uncle at Cambridge University six decades earlier. Egan also shared that he had, from a very early age, always had the motivation to make sure that any time he ran into someone older than himself he would make sure to ask them to share a story about their youth because in his words, “They were there, and I was not.” I had passively done this in my life and have since made sure to proactively ask people for their stories for reasons you are about to see.
Egan went on to tell us that as a young man he remembered meeting his great aunt. She told him that when she herself was a young girl her father took her to see the president because he was coming to their town. She recounted that in person, he was a “great tall man, with a high squeaky voice.” The hair on my arms stood up! Egan explained that his great aunt had seen Abraham Lincoln in person and here I was standing there in rural Vermont hearing the story.
HSNY was founded the year after Lincoln’s assassination. While 155 years can seem like an eternity, if you hunt for these stories – if you make a point of giving people the chance to share their perspective – then you will find, as I have, that even a century and a half can be a deceptively short amount of time.
One of Albert Einstein’s collaborators, John Archibald Wheeler, said, “Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.” This phrase landed with me at some point in high school and never let go. Time is so fleeting, and permanent, and difficult to describe that this definition became an instant personal favorite. Writing this in 2021 after a year of pandemic quarantine seems almost comical because nature can also make sure that nothing happens at all. Nature can freeze time, can’t she? I wonder what you think time may feel like on the moon, or Mars.
In a normal year, I would be making this address in person at our annual gala to a room of joyful supporters. Instead, reality has delivered a year that has both stood still and flown by. I hope, deeply, that this year has not been too difficult for you and that this letter finds you in good health. I also hope that HSNY has been an anchor of sorts. For me, HSNY has been a place of community and stability during a year without any parallel in my life – but one that humanity has seen time and again.
If all goes well, I will see you in person soon at a lecture or at the next gala. In the meantime, I hope you are all enjoying the virtual lectures we have been offering, and the recorded lectures we have online. I will also say we are excited that Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo will be hosting our annual Charity Auction online, allowing our members and supporters to bid from anywhere in the world. I hope you have luck bidding, or fun spectating. The money raised will support HSNY’s mission of education.
Last and not least – a hearty congratulations to all of this year's HSNY scholarship recipients. The scholarships are the function of HSNY that brings the most pride. This is all possible because of the support of our growing number of members, donors and sponsors. Thank you all.
Sincerely,
John Teifert
President, Horological Society of New York
