On the Shortness of Life

Tempus fugit

A Dance to the Music of Time by Nicolas Poussin (public domain - Wikipedia)

“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.” — Henry David Thoreau, 1856

As I considered the concept of time and our relationship with it, my thoughts inevitably turned toward the same thing that plagues so many other time-thinkers: the brevity of it.

It’s not that we have less time than our ancestors. We certainly have greater choices on where and how to spend our time, though. And therein lies the problem.

With the increased number of options before us, is it any surprise that our worth seems to be tied to the speed by which we can do, share, or post things?

“Tardiness is next to wickedness in a society relentless in its consumption of time as both a good and a service—as tweet and Instagram, film clip…