Untitled #3
Life is a continual tradeoff. You can’t receive something without experiencing a comparable loss. For example, the price of wisdom is the loss of innocence. For every secret of life we unlock there is a further loss of the sense of magic and wonder that life offers the young and young at heart.
The price of a good time might be a hangover, cavities, calories and unwanted weight gain (or an unwanted weight loss), disease, or death.
What we usually fail to realize is that each of these “negatives” is actually a positive in disguise, including death itself. The ultimate necessity for all of us is to be able to exit this world when it is time. Without cavities, inappropriate weight, disease, etc., we would never experience death, which is, of course, only leaving the womb of this world and entering (or re-entering) the next world. Does anyone really want to live forever in this world?
I have always been fascinated by the Bible’s account of the man who buried his “talents.” Is it only coincidence that in English the word “talent” (an ancient word for currency) is a synonym for “gift”? The essence of this story is the lesson that we fail to use something given to us it is wasted. Something has to be spent or used if it is to prove productive. Except a seed fall into the soil & die, it remains alone.
Most of us spend our lives trying to preserve that which is meant to be spent. We do so because we are taught that it is responsible to protect our resources (e.g., health, wealth, time, and energy) rather than to squander (that is to spend) them. Perhaps in the long run it is wiser to spend our resources while we can still enjoy them. The present is truly all we have. The future is unknown, including how much of the future still remains for each of us.
The price of a good time might be a hangover, cavities, calories and unwanted weight gain (or an unwanted weight loss), disease, or death.
What we usually fail to realize is that each of these “negatives” is actually a positive in disguise, including death itself. The ultimate necessity for all of us is to be able to exit this world when it is time. Without cavities, inappropriate weight, disease, etc., we would never experience death, which is, of course, only leaving the womb of this world and entering (or re-entering) the next world. Does anyone really want to live forever in this world?
I have always been fascinated by the Bible’s account of the man who buried his “talents.” Is it only coincidence that in English the word “talent” (an ancient word for currency) is a synonym for “gift”? The essence of this story is the lesson that we fail to use something given to us it is wasted. Something has to be spent or used if it is to prove productive. Except a seed fall into the soil & die, it remains alone.
Most of us spend our lives trying to preserve that which is meant to be spent. We do so because we are taught that it is responsible to protect our resources (e.g., health, wealth, time, and energy) rather than to squander (that is to spend) them. Perhaps in the long run it is wiser to spend our resources while we can still enjoy them. The present is truly all we have. The future is unknown, including how much of the future still remains for each of us.
posted by Old Timer at 3:17 PM
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