TIME is the most abundant scarcity there is. Its apparent abundance deceives just as its scarcity is waiting in the wings to wallop you when you least expect it. And you are ALWAYS caught off guard. How often have you heard something to this effect, "OMG!!! Can you believe it's been 25 years already?!!!"
You may think you are just killing time...but in actual fact it is time that is killing you. When you are young you are lulled into complacency by the vast ocean of time that lies before you. You don't even think about it but if you did it would seem like you had centuries ahead of you.
Then, somewhere in adolescence, around the age of 16 or so, suddenly time seems to begin to go faster. The school year is suddenly....SO SHORT! You start seriously considering Pink Floyd's warning about "[the sun] racing around to come up behind you again" and about every year getting shorter and "shorter a breath, one day closer to death." And yet the warning goes largely unheeded as there is plenty of time and 21 is still so far away.
When you hit that mark though, time really begins to move. Today you're 21; you're 22 tomorrow and 28 the day after that. So, accordingly, you start to move a little faster, all the while convinced that's it's only in your mind so you needn't be very worried. Then 30, then 40!
Now, you are so wrapped up in life, raising children, making mortgage payments, pleasing your boss and moving on up, that you notice neither the acceleration nor the speed you've already reached. The reason "life begins at 40" for so many is because that's when people wake up from their complacency and think "OMG!! I'm half-way done! I'd better get started on all those things I wanted to do before it's too late!" Fortunately, many people do just that, but for many others, the feeling quickly subsides and it's business as usual. And let me warn you of this, yesterday's 40 REALLY IS today's 50!
Finally, you reach "the golden years" and spend much of your time finding someone to tell about your glory days and to lament all those things you wanted to have done, you could've done and should've done. And you WOULD'VE done them too, had it not been for...You draw from your HUGE collection of excuses--they ease the pain ever so slightly but it comes back with a burning vengeance and you become HOOKED on those excuses like a junkie and his needle. But the pain never stops needling YOU.
It is, however, really not your fault. No one told you the full truth about time. You're told that "time is precious," "time is the stuff life is made of," "time is money" and so on, which gives time a shiny gleam and gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling. You enjoy whiling away the hours because you're "spending" that time, just spending it, just watching it pass you by, like being at a supermall with an unlimited credit card knowing you never have to pay it back. All the while Pink Floyd is singing in the back ground of your mind, "You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way..." Isn't it comforting to know that you are not alone in this indulgence, and doesn't it feel great?
And yet, in truth TIME is your MORTAL ENEMY. It is a slow and silent killer, just slipping by you practically unnoticed gradually building up into days, weeks, months, years, decades and lifetimes. Tick, tick, tick go the seconds hand on the clock. Drop, drop, drop each tiny grain of sand falls through the hourglass. Time is a ruthless, merciless, unyielding foe. Time doesn't care about you in the slightest; it'll keep ticking along whether or not you heed it, whether or not you care, whether or not you even exist. Time is the tortoise, you are the hare and it is passing you by, slow and steady, slow and steady, slow and steady.
You may think you are just killing time...but in actual fact it is time that is killing you. When you are young you are lulled into complacency by the vast ocean of time that lies before you. You don't even think about it but if you did it would seem like you had centuries ahead of you.
Then, somewhere in adolescence, around the age of 16 or so, suddenly time seems to begin to go faster. The school year is suddenly....SO SHORT! You start seriously considering Pink Floyd's warning about "[the sun] racing around to come up behind you again" and about every year getting shorter and "shorter a breath, one day closer to death." And yet the warning goes largely unheeded as there is plenty of time and 21 is still so far away.
When you hit that mark though, time really begins to move. Today you're 21; you're 22 tomorrow and 28 the day after that. So, accordingly, you start to move a little faster, all the while convinced that's it's only in your mind so you needn't be very worried. Then 30, then 40!
Now, you are so wrapped up in life, raising children, making mortgage payments, pleasing your boss and moving on up, that you notice neither the acceleration nor the speed you've already reached. The reason "life begins at 40" for so many is because that's when people wake up from their complacency and think "OMG!! I'm half-way done! I'd better get started on all those things I wanted to do before it's too late!" Fortunately, many people do just that, but for many others, the feeling quickly subsides and it's business as usual. And let me warn you of this, yesterday's 40 REALLY IS today's 50!
Finally, you reach "the golden years" and spend much of your time finding someone to tell about your glory days and to lament all those things you wanted to have done, you could've done and should've done. And you WOULD'VE done them too, had it not been for...You draw from your HUGE collection of excuses--they ease the pain ever so slightly but it comes back with a burning vengeance and you become HOOKED on those excuses like a junkie and his needle. But the pain never stops needling YOU.
It is, however, really not your fault. No one told you the full truth about time. You're told that "time is precious," "time is the stuff life is made of," "time is money" and so on, which gives time a shiny gleam and gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling. You enjoy whiling away the hours because you're "spending" that time, just spending it, just watching it pass you by, like being at a supermall with an unlimited credit card knowing you never have to pay it back. All the while Pink Floyd is singing in the back ground of your mind, "You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way..." Isn't it comforting to know that you are not alone in this indulgence, and doesn't it feel great?
And yet, in truth TIME is your MORTAL ENEMY. It is a slow and silent killer, just slipping by you practically unnoticed gradually building up into days, weeks, months, years, decades and lifetimes. Tick, tick, tick go the seconds hand on the clock. Drop, drop, drop each tiny grain of sand falls through the hourglass. Time is a ruthless, merciless, unyielding foe. Time doesn't care about you in the slightest; it'll keep ticking along whether or not you heed it, whether or not you care, whether or not you even exist. Time is the tortoise, you are the hare and it is passing you by, slow and steady, slow and steady, slow and steady.
You MUST fight time on its own terms. Do it now...whatever it is. At each instance of each day. Put off only procrastinating and nothing else. Don't kill time, use it, use it as if there were nothing else left to use. Use it with a fury that sears. Use it or lose it...forever...and ever...and ever!!! Rage! Rage! Rage! Against the ticking of the clock! TIME WILL NOT WAIT FOR YOU.
Fernando
...my place where dreams are bought.
