The Commonalities Of Time And Life

Isn't life a big mystery? And isn't time one of life's big mystery? Time and Life are coupled with each other and no matter what we do, it will always stay that way.

I was in my grand father's wake... He lived a long life of 82 years, quite remarkable for the average life expectancy of Filipinos of 72.1 years as of 2009. Before he died, he taught me of three things.

1. Beauty is not foreveR
2. Fame can be forgotteN
3. Riches can be taken away

My grandfather is obviously trying to point out something, there are far more important things than these. We have a custom in our family where we speak publicly of the things we knew about the person we grieve for, good or bad. So it came to a time one man took his turn. He is probably around the same age as my grandpa or probably a little older... In his long speech about his life, there's one phrase that caught my attention and it goes like this...


I watched a Science TV Show a few years back... It demonstrated how a hamster move so fast without having to think of what it had to do. Then at the end of the show, he concluded that because of the hamster's short lifespan, it had to do a lot of things within a day. He said that "Time is limited by Biology".

Humans on the other hand have more luxury towards things. We don't just look for food and eat for the day... We can have the choice to spend time with family and friends. We can do other things that can be or not worthwhile...
We can all decide on the smart use of our time. It's important to exercise for example to maintain good health... But would it be fruitful to spend half a day everyday just working on your body? Well, I guess unless you're a body builder... But maybe even them don't have to spend too long time on their bodies?

It's important to evaluate whether the things we spend most of our time on is fruitful. The things we do should always go back to the questions "Why do you do the things you do?". If you can't find any good answer, or your answer is too inward or self-focused and is affecting your job, your social life, your family or even your self then you may have to do some re-thinking. As an example, you can read about why I write the things I write in this blog.

Before I part with this post, I would especially like to point out the importance of valuing other people's time as well. Sometimes, in our attempt to get our own things done we tend to sacrifice other people's time. It doesn't seem fair, and I think it should always be considered.

Photo Credit: victor_nuno