The ho-hum version

Chapter 194

“ . . . when you consider how short life can be, you create more meaning in the world.” Rath

This chapter is back to the idea of time versus meaning/significance. Its an idea that is persistently popping up in my reading and thoughts. The ho-hum version of this theory is that the less time you have, the more intense, layered, dense, meaningful, significant and powerful each one of those lessened hours will be. Or can be. I think that is a lot of BS frankly.

Less time creates a sense of urgency in some perhaps, and so you can observe an upswing in intensity and focus and productivity - and I think Tom Rath the author, falls into this category. Others appear to be disempowered by their compressed timeline, and do nothing of the sort. They languish about bemoaning their shortened timeline to accomplish whatever. My relative talks about this, remorseful in his speech about, how he hasn’t accomplished anything in the third decade of this life. Now he is beginning the fourth and I still don’t see any difference in his daily choices and actions. As Anne Dillard said, “how we spend our days is how we spend our days” or something to that effect. 

So I am suggesting that how much time (which no one ever really knows the precise amount) we have remaining or have spent already is neither here nor there. Producers will producer, and talkers will talk, and doers will do, and dreamers will dream, and video gamers will play video games. You can choose (up to a point) which of those people you will be, and that choice will show itself each day as you do whatever it is that you chose.

Choose well.

Do well.

Change the world.