BigUglyWorld #6 - The Days of our Lives (June 10, 2004)
Band:
We're basically just searching for a bass player and time to play together. Soon, my children. Soon.
Me:
Yesterday I flew back from Penticton after burying my grandfather to find calamity in the garden.
The World Outside:
I've had my head in the sand for days. I do know we lost the Cup and I do know our leaders are engaged in a pissing contest most mighty, but I fade on the details.
Meat:
Let's do a little math, all of which was inspired by my grandfather.
Let's say you live to be a hundred years old. You die on the day you were born one century before. Forgetting about leap years (because at night figuring out leap years is stupid) that means you've lived 36500 days. That's a good long time.
Just for argument's sake, let's just erase the days from the age of 70 as being for most people a time when your body and mind start to deteriorate and you really aren't living the life we all dream about. We'll just erase those days and pretend they don't count, shall we? That leaves us with 25550 days to work with.
And those first 24 years are really years we invest in becoming the person who we're going to be for the rest of our lives, so let's cut those ones out of the equation too. That leaves us with 16790 days to work with. Suddenly, that's not so much.
Now let's say that we are like most people and work too hard. Lots of times we come home tired, eat some dinner, crash in front of the tube and wait to go to bed. Let's say we do that four days a week for the remaining years. That leaves us with 7222 days to work with.
Forget yard work. Forget helping a friend move. Forget shopping for vegetables. Forget taxes, dinner with the boss, and dinner at Great Aunt Ruth's house. You're down to just 20% of your life to actually enjoy yourself. And you won't even use that. Chances are that the number of days the average person really enjoys themselves are far less than that.
So what in the screamy blue hell is wrong with us? Why do we spend so much of our life on really unimportant things? Why do we work overtime on a salary, in essence giving our lives away? Why do we invest time in relationships that don't work? Why do we give our life away by the handful?
When I did that math, it really creeped me out, and it goes along with what I've been saying for a while now. Life is too bloody short to just shit away on the unnecessary bits. It's why I do all the things I do. Life has to mean something, and if we're ruling 80% of it as being wasted, developmental, or deterioration, that doesn't leave us with a whole buttload to work with. Work that buttload, baby. Work it for all you're worth.
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