Undoing All the Good Feelings
Two similar pieces popped up back-to-back in my world last week. One was a video calculating how much longer you have on this earth so that you’ll spend the time with people who are your priorities rather than staring at a screen, like you’re doing right now by reading this post and watching this video… that is made by an alcohol company.
The other was this old blog post from Wait But Why, breaking down how many winters you have left, how many presidents you’ll live to see elected, how many more pizzas you’ll eat. It’s your lifetime, focused on the finish line. Or, as he tries to teach, “If you’re in your last 10% of time with someone you love, keep that fact in the front of your mind when you’re with them and treat that time as what it actually is: precious.”
Both pieces totally depressed me, missing their mark. Instead of focusing on the message, my very basic brain started running around inside my skull, screaming, “Everyone and everything you love will be gone one day!”
Big sigh.
Sorry to ruin your post-Christmas glow. I pass them along (as they were passed along to me) with the hope that you get something different out of them.
5 comments
I just don’t care for things that tell me how to appreciate my life. I don’t take a lot for granted. I also think that dire warnings about how this may be the last precious moments with someone just causes unnecessary anxiety. You’re forced to suppress your feelings, so the last thing you say to someone isn’t cruel or angry. Whatever – life is unpredictable.
“Spend more time with people you love instead of staring at a screen AND DON’T FORGET TO CONSUME OUR LIFE SPAN-SHORTENING BEVERAGE.” The first video disqualifies itself.
I agree with the comment above: life is unpredictable. We can’t tiptoe around our humanity to ensure all our endings are happy ones. All we can do is our best.
Yeah, I’m already constantly doing math in my head, e.g. Penny Marshall died at 75 that means she was 35 40 years ago when I watched Laverne and Shirley omg I’m already 50 the end is near. I don’t need additional reminders…
GAAAAAH! I won’t even watch that video or read that post. I don’t need to have someone else shoving my mortality down my throat, telling me to appreciate my life because ALL TOO SOON IT WILL ALL BE GONE. I feel that I would have the same reaction as you. I would rather choose to enjoy my moments how I’d like to because it’s up to me to decide, not because someone is counting down to my demise. How do you calculate that, anyway? I could get hit by a bus tomorrow! Ack. Yeah, no thanks to those sorts of posts/videos. And you can feel vindicated that you didn’t miss the mark, you just didn’t need that craziness in your life! You soak up all the moments. You don’t need a shadowy Death figure pointing at the end on a fictional calendar to do that.
Agreeing with all the above comments. Given that we never really know how long we have on this planet, why go there?