How to be a Human Animal: Chapter 29: How to Slow Down the Treadmill
[Note: I wrote this with an audience of college-aged young adults in mind, though I think the principles here are applicable to all human animals.]
Imagine putting 1,000 marbles into a big jar. Imagine removing one marble each month.
Those 1,000 marbles are the months you have. Those are all of the months you have, from the moment you are born until the day you die, on average, at age 80. That’s all you get. Time is non-replenishable, so you need to use it wisely or it will disappear in a flash without leaving you any notable memories.
And it’s worse than you might think because you need to pour 240 of those marbles out right now! You have already used them up because you are about 20 (x 12 month per year). Here’s more bad news: You might not make it to 80 in good shape. You might start showing signs of dementia at 65. You might be wheelchair bound at age 56 after getting into a car accident.
Did you remember to remove a marble from the jar on July 31? That was two weeks ago. That was the end point of another month. How quickly did July go by for you? Probably like a snap of your fingers, right? What did you accomplish in July? If you wrote down all the important and meaningful things you did in July, how many of those things could you write? When you get to be in your 40s or 50s, time will speed up dramatically. When you are middle-aged, which will happen soon, the marbles will be virtually pouring out of your jar.
The best way to slow down the treadmill is to create memories and meaning. This is not done by letting life merely happen to you. [More . . . ]
