I’m ready to declare a universal and hugely significant fact about time.

It’s kind of sad that Einstein isn’t around. I know he would appreciate and applaud the following observation: Time becomes more precious, golden, invaluable, even sacred ... when you’re waiting.

Yes, you should write that down. And please tell others you heard it from me. And feel free to check it out for yourself, the next time you’re standing in a long line or you’re on hold for the next available customer representative. Is anyone on Earth ever happy about waiting? I’d say no, generally speaking.

Now, let me add this second fascinating observation ... that time becomes especially fragile and vulnerable to dangerous intrusions when you squeeze hours and moments down into seconds. In other words, the less time you’ve got, the more important it becomes. (I assume you are writing that down, too.)

So why am I taking up your time to talk about time? Give me a second, and you’ll see. Ha. See what I did there? I’m asking you to wait, but only for a second. I did that to make a point. We are surrounded by “voices” or instructions asking for a second of our time, urging us to take a moment or give it a minute, stuff like that.

Like I said. Upon hearing such commands, my time suddenly seems much more valuable than years, months or weeks that also fly by fast enough.

For some reason, I struggle with giving up a few seconds or minutes to complete a task. Even an important task.

For example ... brushing my teeth. Yes, brushing is an important daily routine that should be done at least twice a day. But there’s more. Dental experts also highly recommend a brushing regimen that takes at least two minutes. Two whole minutes.

That is not a long time. Two minutes ... 120 seconds. Piece of cake, I tell myself. But then I suddenly hear the voice of my dad or perhaps it was his dad (my grandfather). Probably both. They had a standard response to anyone saying, “Relax, it will only be a couple of minutes.”

“I’d hate to hang that long,” was their dry reply. (It’s kind of a family muttering I borrowed and proudly use now and then.)

I admit the first time I heard this, I was a bit confused. Hang? What are they talking about? Then I realized it was the noose around the neck kind of hanging. And it all made sense. And made me laugh.

Again, I suggest you test it yourself. I truly doubt anyone jams a toothbrush around the inside of their mouth for two whole minutes. Come on. People have things to do. Coffee to drink. Stuff like that.

And hey, remember those pandemic panic days when we all were washing our hands after wiping down our mail and the groceries we had delivered. There were public service announcements on how to wash my hands – for 20 seconds. Just sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice, I was told. Take the time to scrub the palms, backs of hands, between those fingers, under your nails and wrists.

I actually tried humming the birthday tune while scrubbing, but it quickly felt ridiculous, so I grabbed a towel to dry off, trying not to think about what evil might lurk under a fingernail.

Who would have thought 20 seconds could take so long? It was frustrating. Kind of stressful. But that’s my point. I think people get pretty edgy when they can feel the seconds ticking away, lost forever.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe most people do spend two minutes brushing their teeth. Maybe my time observations are nonsense.

Time is precious. That is a universal truth, regardless of the seconds or minutes or hours or years involved. So precious and to be savored.

I should relax. Stop and smell the roses along the four-lane highway of life. Yeah, I should do that. It would only take a couple of minutes.

Of course … I’d hate to hang that long.

• Lonny Cain, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for The Herald-News in Joliet in the 1970s. His PaperWork email is lonnyjcain@gmail.com. Or mail the NewsTribune, 426 Second St., La Salle IL 61301.