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Ruminations
Oct. 18th, 2006 12:01 amI think it was Nietzsche who asked, if a demon came to you and told you that you would live your life again, every pain, every joy, would you thank him for his gift or curse him for his damnation? A good question, to be sure. Not a bad start to evaluating one's life. But I feel we often lean towards the "life in retrospect" evaluation method. There is a balance to be struck between doing things you like now, and doing things you'll be glad you've done. And I don't just mean simple things with future rewards like laundry. To spend one's life with fleeting pleasures is to perhaps miss the greater pleasure of a life "well lived", whatever the hell that means, yet to live life so it is nice to write about at five years remove may well mean that you're missing out on the living itself, like the person who takes a vacation and spends the whole time taking pictures instead of actually experiencing the world.
The question I have more often used to guide my life has been, if you won the lottery, aside from the giant material things, what would you do with your life? Perhaps an equally valid question would be if you knew you had only one year to live, what would you do with your life? The answers may well be similar. Granted, there are some inexactitudes in translating those answers back into reality. Sometimes making short-term sacrifices for long-term financial stability makes sense. And sometimes there are things we would do fearlessly in our last months, but which might be ill-advised if we were going to live long enough to reap all the consequences.
If I had a billion dollars and was planning on dying next week, I'd go on the type of crazed spree that is neither possible nor advisable given less money and more life. Conversely, my current 5-year plan is slightly flawed insofar as a truck could hit me tomorrow, and I'd be very upset to have gone into work last week instead of just spending time with the people that matter. I suppose, like everything else, the secret is striking a balance. (Or having magical foreknowledge so you know which side to focus on.)
My current weekend plan puts me in Boston on Friday afternoon at around 3ish... anyone unfettered by work in the Boston area want to hang out then?
The question I have more often used to guide my life has been, if you won the lottery, aside from the giant material things, what would you do with your life? Perhaps an equally valid question would be if you knew you had only one year to live, what would you do with your life? The answers may well be similar. Granted, there are some inexactitudes in translating those answers back into reality. Sometimes making short-term sacrifices for long-term financial stability makes sense. And sometimes there are things we would do fearlessly in our last months, but which might be ill-advised if we were going to live long enough to reap all the consequences.
If I had a billion dollars and was planning on dying next week, I'd go on the type of crazed spree that is neither possible nor advisable given less money and more life. Conversely, my current 5-year plan is slightly flawed insofar as a truck could hit me tomorrow, and I'd be very upset to have gone into work last week instead of just spending time with the people that matter. I suppose, like everything else, the secret is striking a balance. (Or having magical foreknowledge so you know which side to focus on.)
My current weekend plan puts me in Boston on Friday afternoon at around 3ish... anyone unfettered by work in the Boston area want to hang out then?
