The meaning of a finite life
How to find beauty in the ephemeral
🏷️ Categories: Time, Happiness, Memory
The more abundant something is, the less we value it.
If time were unlimited, nothing would have value.
Our most valuable resource is time. We cannot produce it, nor save it, we can only spend it. If time were unlimited and our health did not deteriorate, we would have eternity ahead of us to do anything.
Eternity sounds attractive, but would it really be so desirable?
The end of opportunity cost
What do you like most in this life?
We don't usually think about it, but life, despite its misfortunes and beauty, makes sense because it is finite. Without an end, everything would lose its flavor, its importance. The finite forces us to choose, to decide what to do with our time and to define who we are. That limitation gives meaning to our stay in this world.
It is the opportunity cost, the cost of choosing one thing and losing others.
Because if we lived forever, decisions and goals would be worthless. We could do everything, try every path, live every experience and achieve all the goals we set for ourselves. Choosing one thing means renouncing another, and that renunciation is what gives value to the decision, is what defines us and makes us love our path. Studying one thing and not another, forming a family with one person and not another, pursuing one dream and not another....
Everything becomes valuable when we understand that we cannot do everything.
It is essential to know how to choose elegantly.
And yes, there is always a corner for doubts, for the “what if I had chosen the other”. That mental noise is called counterfactual thinking, I'm sure it has happened to you too. What relieves me the most is to remind myself that I made the best decision with what I knew at the time. It's not fair to judge your past with your experience of the present.
The pianist dreams of admiring the beauty of space that the astronaut contemplates. The astronaut, floating far away, longs for human warmth and the beauty of music.
It is the price we pay for choosing to be who we are.
Memory betrays you
When something shines too brightly, everything else seems to shine less brightly.
Memory makes us remember the brilliant and fleeting extraordinary moments that have happened in our lives. The reality is that the vast majority of our life happens in the simplicity of the everyday, in the routines that we barely notice, in the good times with friends, in the good habits that become rituals.
That was the reason that led me to start journaling: to have the superpower to travel in time through my life and appreciate more each day with its details and daily life.
Everyday acts are not intense, but they are the most rewarding in the long run.
The extraordinary is consumed in the act:
No one achieves their dreams every day.
No one graduates from college every day.
No one publishes books every day.
No one has their first child every day.
No one wins awards every day.
No one lives the extraordinary every day, and if they do, it ceases to be extraordinary.
Don't run away from the everyday, embrace it and enjoy it.
They are moments that we wish to repeat and that give stable direction to a finite life.
We are the time we have left.
✍️ Your turn: What do you think about the finiteness of life? Finding these reasons make me appreciate even more something so brief and beautiful.
💭 Quote of the day: “Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that means rather little because we all know that an hour can seem like an eternity or pass in an instant, depending on how we use it.”
See you soon! Take care of yourself 👋.
It was time well spent, Alvaro. I learned more in the time it took me to read your piece, than I believe I did for the remainder of my day. My father, in his last stage of life, used to say that the years flew by, and the minutes crawled. We spend our busiest years, speeding down the road of life, making plans for the future. Now I am retired, and I make a conscious effort to spend time doing activities that keep me engaged with the outside world, and making sure I have plenty of quiet time, to relax and reflect on my day. Thank you for reminding me to take time to journal. I haven't done that, consistently, for a while. Great piece!
At 75, I've come to appreciate the little things about my little world inside the fence. How the flowers are rejuvenating in the cooler air of autumn after the searing, dealy heat of summer. How a bunny has nipped off the snapdragons blooms that we just planted a few days ago. The fact that the toads that have taken up residence in the sprinkler control box are still with us, hunting the bugs along with the lizards that steward our gardens. It's a microscopic world, but I love every day I see new things going on.