On the Shortness of Life (Seneca)
· Our lives are generally not as short as we think. Yet we waste a lot of precious time distracted by paths that are trivial, pointless, and inessential. Then we come to regret all the years we have squandered when it is too late.
· We often tell ourselves that after years of hard work, we will finally settle into our retirement and do what we’ve always wanted. But why should we live authentically when we are old and just about to die, when we could have truly lived before then? What matters is to be fully here, right now, rather than hoping for an abstract future that may never come.
· We guard our possessions, but we give up our time without that same sense of protectiveness. When we forget to value what we have, and crave after what we don’t need, we will suffer.
· Time will never return to us once it has gone. It is our responsibility to treasure it. No one can do it for us. It is so easy to be distracted and undisciplined, engaging with what undermines our well-being.
· Seneca once said, “It takes the whole of life to learn how to live and… It takes the whole of life to learn how to die” (4).
How many mistakes have we made, how many of our choices have led to unnecessary suffering, so that we could earn our wisdom?
· A worthy life is not measured in years, but in the wisdom of our thoughts and actions. We can drift through life until we’re old with ignorance or we can commit ourselves to a higher purpose. Our future is based on what we do in the present.
· No one can bring us back our lost years. No one will return us to our former selves. We can’t travel to the past, but we can learn from our mistakes and adapt. We can grow as human beings.
· What we postpone until tomorrow may never come. There may never be a tomorrow.
· Temples will crumble. Statues of great leaders will fall. Plants will wither under the glare of the sun. Our loved ones will decompose, eaten by maggots. All the glorious civilizations of antiquity have collapsed under their own pressure.
Everything will break down and decay. Life will grow out of death.
What will we do with the time that we have left?
