Yes, do just that, dear Lucilius: liberate yourself, and gather and save up time which until now was being taken from you by force or stealth or simply slipping away unnoticed. Convince yourself that the situation is as I describe it; some periods of time are snatched from us, some are stolen, and some simply seep away. Yet the most shameful loss is the loss due to carelessness. Indeed, if you consider things attentively, the greatest part of life slips away in failure, a great part in futility, and all of it in distraction.
Selected Letters
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
What a tragedy it is to go through life and at the end, when there is little left, start to see how precious it is. It's like winning a lottery, and then when there is only $10,000 left starting to be thrifty. It's too late. We only have one precious life to live, but how much of our time is wasted in shopping, trivial entertainments, and other meaningless activities? Do we really have so much life that we can spend an entire day binge watching some mediocre television show? Since our lives are time, time should be that most precious thing we preserve and consume in the pursuit of meaningful activities? So then the bigger question becomes: What is a meaningful activity? One that makes you a better person, one that takes you closer to leading a good life of virtue. Watching 5 seasons of Breaking Bad in a week is not going to move anyone towards that goal. Spending three nights a week in a pub drinking with your "drinking buddies" is not going to help.
How is it some have, with the same amount of time or even much less, produced so much? It is as if they lived a dozen lives compared to the little I have done. I suspect, through an act of pure will, they made a decision to use their time wisely, to dedicate it to activities that would amount to something meaningful. I don't mean making money or achieving great power, but rather being engaged in something that is good, that adds up to something. So there is the bigger question: What constitutes a meaningful life? That's a big one!
We should look at our time as our most valuable resource to not be wasted. And each of us knows when we are wasting our time, when we are engaged in something that, in the end, adds nothing to our lives but a cloudy head with no real memories. Live well.
Confession: Given the lack of entries on this blog over the past few weeks, as well as no meaningful updates to www.stoicfreedom.com, it's obvious I have been wasting my time. Yes, I did spend time on completing another painting, and starting a third one, but other than that the past few weeks have been a blur. Time to sort out what are meaningful activities and what are meaningless. Don't "kill time" use it to some good purpose. Since one way of measuring progress is to show results, and I have offered up the idea that painting is a meaningful activity, here is the second painting I have completed. Keep well.
Confession: Given the lack of entries on this blog over the past few weeks, as well as no meaningful updates to www.stoicfreedom.com, it's obvious I have been wasting my time. Yes, I did spend time on completing another painting, and starting a third one, but other than that the past few weeks have been a blur. Time to sort out what are meaningful activities and what are meaningless. Don't "kill time" use it to some good purpose. Since one way of measuring progress is to show results, and I have offered up the idea that painting is a meaningful activity, here is the second painting I have completed. Keep well.
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| The Road (24" x 30") |
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