There never is enough time

The old joke is that on facing their impending death, nobody ever wishes they had spending more time at the office. The joke is that it takes the threat of death to place value on our time and how we spend it. Humans, as far as we know, are the only species that knows that it has a limited life and it can end at any time. Still, we have this built in mental blind spot that allows us to spend our lives without dread.

We do place special significance on death and we ritualize in various ways how we treat the end of life. But even these rites are celebrations of the living. We speak well of the dead, despite what they might have done in their lives. We remember the good times. This is done to bring comfort to the living for it's obvious it can do nothing for the one that has died. And most importantly it creates a time for us all to stop and think of our own mortality.

I suspect that like a drunken New Years Eve promise to change our lives, we think briefly about how we spend our time and if we have our priorities straight. Following that moment of reflection, the burdens of life and the habits we have developed creep back in. We return to spending to much time thinking about work. We waste time watching mindless television. We shove off our kids on organized sports and computer camps. We don't visit our aging parents and we lose track of friends. sometimes. we actually lose them. Have you ever meet an old acquaintance and enquired about a mutual friend only to find that they have died?

I think we need more than funerals, birthdays and weddings to renew our relations with family and friends and I don't have an answer for myself much less anyone else. I do know that while many deride e-mail, it has kept me in closer contact with friends, except those that don't see the value in that crap. (This is the same person who can't conduct a conversation with you in person, but somehow values person to person contact exclusively.)

Our world has changed and will continue to change and is irrevocably on a path of widening our sphere. small towns have interstate highways near by and cities have ever more busy airports and train stations. We move about in ever widening circles to what avail, I do not know. But keeping track of those we love and need in our lives is made more difficult because of the demands of life and the distance between us. It's sometimes easier to feel fulfilled by going to the office.