The clock had sat on the mantle for years. It ran and ran. One day, the clock started thinking about how many times it had to tick during the year. It counted up the seconds. It would have to tick 31,536,000 times a year. The clock became overwhelmed. "I can't do it, that's just too much." So, the clock stopped ticking. Then someone reminded the clock that it didn't have to tick the 31,536,000 seconds all at one time, but rather one tick at a time. The clock then realized this was okay and started ticking again.