UZ Gasthuisberg, March 2017
8:00 am.
I wake up and look at the clock. It’s on the wall opposite the end of my bed, where I see it every minute of the day.
But, ever since I got here, I’ve been wondering what that clock really looks like.
Yesterday, my reasoning went like this:
The clock must be a perfect square, as high as it is wide. I know that, because when the second hand passes the 3, 6, 9 or 12, it is always the same distance from the raised edge that indicates the outer limits of the clock.
And the same pointer revolves around a pivot, which I see clearly and which can’t move with respect to that raised edge. The pointer is always the same length. So, taking all these facts into account, I’m pretty sure my clock does have to be a perfect square.
But when I look at it, it is at least twice as wide as it is high. However much I would like to, I cannot see my clock as I know it must be in reality. It is always wider than it is high, and sometimes, depending on the position of the hands, the central pivot shifts slightly to the right, which gives a very strange impression.
I have already asked some people about the shape of my clock. They looked at me rather oddly. I don’t blame them!
08:00, a few days later
This morning I wake up and look at the clock on the wall, opposite the end of my bed, where I see it every minute.
It takes a while before I realize: my clock is a perfect square!
I feel the tears start.
This is progress.
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