Has anyone noticed how ‘busy’ life has become, suddenly in this ‘modern’ day and age of internet. Its not like when there were no smartphones, computers and gadgets people had more time but they had little things to attend to. Now with advent of ‘The Internet’ where everything is connected and we’re always online (almost), it seems like ‘Life’, in its most essence has lost its meaning.
Life as we know it, is time. Time which we all have, 24 hours in a day but for how long, we don’t know. Now in those 24 hours if you check your smartphone usage and the time you spent online whether its productive e.g, professional work or blogging or making content etc., or whether its just personal e.g, social media, consuming content, communication etc., they end up taking majority of our time. Especially, in post-Covid world where everything is going remote, time and in its consequence life, is going pretty fast.
Most of us nowadays have always something to attend to. Be it a zoom call for work or a class online or some other business we might need to get done. People are realising that as the time progresses they are doing more but making less. They need to do more and more to make the same every year as the year passes. A lot of it can be blamed to poor economics choices and inflation caused by surplus monetary policy but that’s not what I’m here for.
I’m saying, that in a world which is only getting faster and complex with time, one realises that time, is the most valuable asset that one has remaining. A dollar today is not the same worth as a dollar tomorrow. Money’s value changes based on events which are out of our control and frankly most people don’t have neither time nor knowledge to make sound investment decisions. But relationships and memories and some key elements that we have left which can sustain, grow and nurture with time.
Most people start their college in their late teenage. Get jobs in their mid 20s. Work hard to pay bills and make a sustainable living in their 30s. Save some cash in their 40s. And barely work their way to the retirement in 60s when they have so many physiological and psychological issues throughout their 50s.
Time just flies by in all this madness. The chase, first for a decent college and degree, then to a decent paying job, then climbing ladders in work. Some, even find their ‘love’ amidst all of this. Make it work out into marriage. Mostly it does not last long. Then they settle in life after they get tired and done with all the rat race. It seems like most people, and I must say almost all people, ‘miss-out’ on the very fundamental idea of life, which is, ‘to live it’.
Time, as we know it is not bound by anyone or anything. It has no beginning no end. So if we keep time constant and watch over our somewhat minuscule lifetime of 60-70 years (compared to infinite time), we will realise that there is, ‘no point’ to it.
Now, hold on, wait a minute. Before jumping to conclusion like ‘Life is meaningless’ hear me out. ‘The meaning of life’ – Well, I can’t answer that for you. It’s what everyone has to choose for themselves. We’re all born as individuals. So I think, the meaning of our life should be decided by ourselves and not by some higher power, be it government or religion or God.
When you realise that in such a short period of time all of your do’s and don’ts, don’t amount to anything of what we know as universe – it can go two ways.
One, Life sucks. No matter what I do, I can’t make a difference. The difference I make is only temporary. Everything changes. Nothing lasts forever. Neither peace, nor happiness, nor love.
Or two, Its doesn’t matter. That’s great! Now I’m finally relieved of consequences. I can do whatever I like. I don’t have to be bound by any law or belief or I ‘have to’ live my life in a certain way. I can do whatever I want. I can be whoever I want to be. I can go anywhere I want to go. I don’t have to follow no rules. Be nowhere. Be nobody. Do nothing at all!
But, then the ‘real’ question comes up. If your perceive life the second way, then what ‘good’ or ‘meaningful’ or ‘value’ your life has, have or had.
By believing in some ‘idea’, we give meaning to our life. Be it ‘virtue’, ‘love’, ‘lust’, ‘greed’, ‘power, ‘money’, ‘family’, ‘country’, ‘race’, ‘gender’, ‘culture’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘colour’, ‘good’,’bad’ or ‘evil’.
Imagine a world where such ideas never existed. Does it resemble anything to animals? Animals just born, eat, sleep, reproduce and die. Well, of course not in that order but the point is, it’s our human psyche which tries to find meaning in everything and tries to sees patterns in things and events arounds us. This ability to ‘reason’ and understand things make us somewhat ‘better’ if not worse than animals. I know many people will call this ‘Human supremacy’ in this age of political correctness but I’d argue that Humans are one of the most ‘intellectually’ and ‘emotionally’ prime species of all the species that we know of, on Earth and beyond.
My whole premise of writing this article was to make this point that Time, is the most valuable asset we have. And we, the humans, have the true power to harness this asset. So what can we do to make our time more meaningful? Again that’s for an individual to decide where they want to devote their limited time to.
But the ‘freedom’ to NOT do anything, NOT be anyone and NOT be anywhere, is I think, the greatest choice we have of this immensely valuable and limited asset we know of, as Time.
PS – What is the one thing which you can’t buy?