| | i've been brooding lately about time and about how inefficient my usage is and how little benefit i derive from it (i've been frittering a lot of mine away recently)... somehow it has hit me how valuable, and how scarce and fickle it is... relative to money, for example, time is priceless, incomparable even... let me explain... i--like most people i know--can make money at any point in my life, no matter what the circumstances (probably not as much as i would like, but that's besides the point)... and if by some vicissitude of fortune i were to lose it all, my job and savings, my flat screen and my laptop, everything i own, i'd still be okay... after all, it's just money (for anyone who doubts that money is just money, i suggest you take a wad of cash and let it burn... see how satisfying that is)... in fact, i guarantee you that when i'm in my sixties (i refuse to live into my 70s and am planning to burn myself out in 3-4 years after i cash in my 401k at age 65 by indulging in every hedonistic practice known to man), i'll look back at my 20s and think, 'why the hell did i stress out about the triviality that is money? why didn't i take more vacations and work less weekends?' although for the record, i've never actually worked a weekend. sure, today i apprise my future self that there is rent to pay, a mouth to feed and precious pennies to be saved for rainy days, but i'm 99% certain that is all bullshit... money can be made anywhere anytime. but time, time is another animal... take for instance the act of murder... one measly premeditated murder can land you in jail for the rest of your life... that's 3 seconds (time it takes for you to draw a gun and shoot someone) translating into 40 years minimum... talk about a good rate of return... or it could happen the other way around--some crazy motherfucker could shoot you in the head and the rate of return would be the same... 40 years just vaporized as easy as one, two, bang! no ifs or buts... if you think about it, a murder or a lifelong sentence possibly constitute the most unfair trades of all time in terms of hours put in, and you don't even have a say in it.. and talking about trades, the thing with time is that you don't get second chances as in sports... in a basketball game you can screw up constantly and you'll still have the opportunity to make another shot... or grab another rebound (and you'll know when you'll run out of chances because there is a jumbotron telling you)... in baseball you get at least 3 at-bats with 3 strikes each every game and that's only when a pitcher is pitching lights-out (usually it's more like 5)... but in life you screw up once and you're screwed perhaps forever and you don't know when it's going to happen... that's why prisons and cemeteries are replete with criminals and corpses--very few people have the luxury of a redo... how cool would it be for me to run a ponzi scheme and be given 5 life sentences but then decide i'll just start over at nothing... or be on my death bed or in my case hopefully passed out at a strip club about to croak and just decide i want to switch it up and try someone else's life... but no, no, no.. time is a fickle, petty girlfriend you can't turn your back on. it's the only quantifiable thing that is worth keeping under your mattress because it's priceless, the most black and white thing that exists, the most unforgiving aspect of life in this planet, no legal loopholes, no extensions, no warp in the space-time continuum (that we know of) that can help us cheat it... all else is picayune and worthless in comparison. be happy.
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| | Posted 3/31/2009 10:01 PM - 1 View - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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