It’s hard to believe, but tomorrow is my daughter’s third birthday.It seems like it was just yesterday that we were burping her while trying to steady her wobbly little head.Now she is quite capable of burping on her own and doing somersaults over our dog.Where did the time go?
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity provides a means by which time can be “stretched” by moving at close to the speed of light.That’s great, but it’s not very practical with today’s gas prices.I think he should have spent his time trying to figure out why time seems to go so much faster as we get older.Do you remember how long it took for Christmas to come when you were a child?What about those endless summers of your youth?Birthdays that were once infrequent milestones now seem more like gravel roads.Quick – without doing any math, how old are you?Unless your age happens to have a zero at the end of it, that one probably stumped you.
One of the reasons that time seems to go so fast is because we are trying to cram so many activities into our lives.We treat our schedules like a flight attendant trying to get an oversized bag into an overhead bin.We pack it in and slam the door shut.When the door pops back open, instead of removing anything, we rearrange it, pack it in tighter, and slam the door harder.
The problem with trying to do so much is that it really robs us of the opportunity to do anything significant.I’m not trying to say that we should be lazy and not do anything.On the contrary, I believe that staying busy with a plethora of activities is actually a form of laziness.
Rather than putting forth the effort that it takes to identify those activities that allow us to utilize our God-given talents, positively impact people, and dedicate our time to something larger than ourselves, we surrender ourselves to societal stand-by activities.We sign up for things that we are dispassionate about because our friends are doing it… or we don’t want to deny our kids a particular experience… or we just feel obligated.After over committing ourselves, we complain about those activities as if they are to blame for our hectic schedule.In truth, we are to blame because we lack the courage to say no to all of those things that eat away at our passion.
There’s a line at the end of the movie The Usual Suspects that says, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”How true this can be if you allow insignificant busyness to supersede your life’s mission.
September 23, 2008
Time Warp
Posted by Jason Barr under Social Commentary | Tags: significance, Time |Leave a Comment
It’s hard to believe, but tomorrow is my daughter’s third birthday. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were burping her while trying to steady her wobbly little head. Now she is quite capable of burping on her own and doing somersaults over our dog. Where did the time go?
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity provides a means by which time can be “stretched” by moving at close to the speed of light. That’s great, but it’s not very practical with today’s gas prices. I think he should have spent his time trying to figure out why time seems to go so much faster as we get older. Do you remember how long it took for Christmas to come when you were a child? What about those endless summers of your youth? Birthdays that were once infrequent milestones now seem more like gravel roads. Quick – without doing any math, how old are you? Unless your age happens to have a zero at the end of it, that one probably stumped you.
One of the reasons that time seems to go so fast is because we are trying to cram so many activities into our lives. We treat our schedules like a flight attendant trying to get an oversized bag into an overhead bin. We pack it in and slam the door shut. When the door pops back open, instead of removing anything, we rearrange it, pack it in tighter, and slam the door harder.
The problem with trying to do so much is that it really robs us of the opportunity to do anything significant. I’m not trying to say that we should be lazy and not do anything. On the contrary, I believe that staying busy with a plethora of activities is actually a form of laziness.
Rather than putting forth the effort that it takes to identify those activities that allow us to utilize our God-given talents, positively impact people, and dedicate our time to something larger than ourselves, we surrender ourselves to societal stand-by activities. We sign up for things that we are dispassionate about because our friends are doing it… or we don’t want to deny our kids a particular experience… or we just feel obligated. After over committing ourselves, we complain about those activities as if they are to blame for our hectic schedule. In truth, we are to blame because we lack the courage to say no to all of those things that eat away at our passion.
There’s a line at the end of the movie The Usual Suspects that says, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” How true this can be if you allow insignificant busyness to supersede your life’s mission.