Every week, David, my walking partner, and I go for a walk of some twenty kilometers. And we go downtown to the train station and have a cup of tea and then proceed along.
At the train station, there are around fifty men who sit there, literally sit there on cardboard boxes and stare blankly into space. They seemingly have no notion of time, none whatsoever.
So the concept of Memento Mori, that one day this reality will have transcendence, I will leave here, seemingly has no bearing on their lives whatsoever.
But I do think, however, for the rest of us, that it is important from time to time to reflect on the fact that my life is finite. So, the questions, of course, why am I here? What’s my mission?
And what happens when I leave here? Where do I go? The third question is relevant to our chat today.
Now, Memento Mori reminds us, this concept reminds us, that we have to really appreciate time, don’t we? And we live in an age, curiously, the Internet age, that kind of suggests, in my estimation, that we are immortal. I will live forever.
Because the Internet just seemingly plays on and on, and it pulls me into nonsensical exercises. That could be games or some other trivia, or perhaps watching an idol, following some idol, but it just throws away the time, as curious as it is.
And all of us consciously know, because we can look around and see our parents and our grandparents transcending, leaving here, that this concept of time is real.
One day, it will stop, for sure, without any question at all. But I guess in a curious sort of way, we trick ourselves and believe that the events around us might change, might end, but I won’t, because I am immortal.
And in fact, there is a man by the name of Brian Johnson. And this is one of his major projects to try to live forever. But of course, inevitably, he won’t.
So putting the nonsense away, how am I going to gain more value out of every single day? That’s really the question, isn’t it?
Because what I know consciously or I don’t know consciously doesn’t really matter, because the events of life in real terms will proceed along with or without me agreeing, right?
So the point is to grasp time, to feel the full power of every single moment. So what am I to do?
Well, many pundits say that firstly, I must begin my journey in the morning. When I first awaken, it’s another wonderful day. And every single day that we exist on this earth, of course, is a magical and wonderful day.
And one of these days, of course, potentially is a little bit more magical, in the sense that we will remember it perhaps longer. That could be a day when I’m graduating from school, I’m perhaps getting my first job, I’m meeting Mr. and Mrs.
Wright, maybe one day marriage, children, etc. Those days perhaps are in a certain sense of the word are more special because of memories, but they are days like every single day.
So when I awaken, I sit at the edge of my bed and try to survey what’s going on around me, and I’m quite fortunate I have quite the vista from my 13th floor bedroom window.
But either way, we can still sit for five minutes in quiet contemplation to try to gather our thoughts and perceive the idea that this is another wonderful day.
Then of course, to my notebook, wonderful idea is to write the day and the date so I can show that this day is being acknowledged. And then, after this is done, I’m off.
I’m off with my daily tasks to the washroom and then to the kitchen, for breakfast and then putting my clothes together and to employment or to school.
Now, once I leave the notebook, of course, time quickly moves along and has a tendency to slip away. So how do I control this aspect of time? Well, once again, the secret is to be deliberate, to remark to yourself that events are occurring.
Now, very difficult to acknowledge every single moment. But let’s say, for instance, you’re walking along, every few minutes, five or ten minutes, you can look, look at other people, you can look at the bees, the bugs, things along this nature.
You can acknowledge that time is moving along. And as the day proceeds, you will do this continuously, won’t you? You’ll remark on events and you’ll tend to study things just a little bit more.
I went to a yoga conference years ago in India and the guru there said that he wasn’t any different than anyone else.
The only difference was, he studied things more. He paid attention to the events of the world more. And I think it’s a very good lesson for all of us, isn’t it?
That as long as we can take notice of so many things, as opposed to descending into games or nonsensical bits of trivia on our phones, then we can catch the moment. And when you really begin to look, it’s amazing what you can see.
Many years ago I had a friend who liked to go to the park, and she wouldn’t lie on her back and look up at the stars.
She would turn over and lie on her stomach, of all things, and look down into the grass to try to identify the ants and the other creatures that were moving along and crawling.
So there you are just studying the bees and the bugs, gives you more life, doesn’t it? Absolutely. Now, there is of course the age old question, who is happier?
John Stuart Mill in one of his books pauses this question. Who is happier? A pig in mud or Socrates unhappy?
And of course, the answer must be the pig, right? Because the pig in mud must be pretty contented. But the real answer, once again, is Socrates unhappy.
Why? Because Socrates knows what happiness is. So once again, when we begin to really study the world around us and really try to grasp time, we change.
We just do, because we can feel the time ticking by. And many people say it’s a very short life, but this is just not true in my experience.
It’s a very, very, very long life, but it can be an astoundingly inconsequential or boring life if you don’t grasp the events of time, because the one thing we cannot control is time. We can control our money, we can lose all of it and get it back.
We can control our beauty to a certain extent through plastic surgery, but we cannot control time. It just dissipates and truly runs away.
So given that we’re making an attempt to control time, we will change. And we will have a much deeper appreciation of the events that exist around us. And this will produce a more thoughtful being, in my estimation.
And you must have asked yourself, with the conflict that once again is rearing its head in the Ukraine, and in Gaza, Iran, what’s going on? Given that we know so much due to the Internet and AI technology and the rest of it, what’s going on?
Well, obviously, we have no appreciation of time, because really, if you think to yourself, if you were to be a soldier, and you realize that this consciousness, in this reality, at the very least, has been given once, you most assuredly would not be
rushing out to throw it away, I would think, because you would realize that your contribution to the society is extremely important, and if you just throw it away in some nonsensical war, and all wars are ultimately nonsensical, truly, with the long
hand of history, we know this, even the ones that have overturned total evil. They killed millions of millions of people, and was their justice done? Always debatable.
I mean, there are most assuredly some good things came out of the purging of Nazism after World War II, and the awful things that they perpetrated, beyond imagination, without any question at all.
But could that war, through thoughtfulness, not have been prevented prior to the fact of Hitler taking power? And many pundits say yes, things could have been done, or at least very early in Hitler’s reign after 1933.
So we certainly want to become more thoughtful individuals.
So think to yourself every time you awaken to have such gratitude for another magnificent day, and remember that there is no one like me.
There never has been, and there never will be, but I must spend my time well for the common good to make all of us, all of our civilization, a more botific place for all human beings.
And then this concept of Memento Mori will be properly put in its place.
And you know what they say, you know what they say, critical thinking is everything, especially when you think about your own mortality and the things you have to do in your life, and critical thinking is great, truly great.
You take care, God bless, bye bye.