The Imminence of Approaching Time

Time is an odd anomaly of the way of life. It waits for no person, cannot be explained in any understandable manner and cannot be controlled. If I were a religious person, then the 'higher power' I would imagine would make numerous parallels to the concept of time. Incomprehensibly powerful, unrelenting and in total control. But alas, religious matters are not to be conveyed in this post. Rather, the topic at hand is the magnitude of greatness of time to those who sit and ponder it.

But first, what is greatness? Some would say it is a synonym of the degree of size or power, or of the magnitude of goodness. But in this, the word 'greatness' will be taken as the combination of the two words. To what degree is time good and powerful? That is the question at hand. 

Have you ever thought to yourself of how future dates seem so immensely distant, and yet find yourself amazed at how quickly the time elapsed post the event occurrence? I often find myself staring into the future, awaiting an oncoming event, expecting greatness and being disappointed to discover mediocrity. Some may say that it is not the event that conveys mediocrity, but rather the observer to which mediocrity is perceived. Nevertheless, time comes and goes whether we want it to or not, it is up to us to make of it what we will. 

The past 5 years I spent in a high school, and when I started I was faced with the obstacle of getting through the years of objective learning and studying my way to the career I desired. Starting off so small and seemingly irrelevant, time began to pass and soon it was decision making time. "The choices you make today will affect the rest of your life and career, choose wisely!" they said, bear in mind I was only 15 at the time. What kind of 15-year-old knows what they want to do for the rest of their life? In any case, I moved ahead with my path of programming and history amongst others at which point I thought to myself how the older students were doing such complicated tasks and projects and feared the day I was in their position. Yet again, time passed by all too quickly and soon enough I was part of that older student group, finishing off major projects which delved into the period of World War Two, and the whole (written) duration of the Cold War. upon thinking of my college career, I could almost say it went as fast as the time it took me to write this paragraph, whereas while stuck in the middle of that 5 year period, stuck into daily routine, it felt as though it would never end! 

Time is an odd anomaly because it is incomprehensible. We as human beings seek control, to some degree, over almost every resource and aspect of our lives and no matter how hard we try, time is something that just slips our grasps; and most likely such an inconvenience is for the betterment of life. Time is unparalleled in its magnitude of power, and such power in the control of a single life form would be disastrous. "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Time is absolute, and to seek its control is foolish. 

There comes a time when we have accept time. Accept it for all it is and all it brings. The time has come for me to add a '+1' to the roster of time I have spent in this world, and acceptance for the deeds I have done in the past year is crucial. I fear not time, for time is a constant. It is a permanent force and whatever it brings, I must face with a smile, and pride for what I have accomplished. 

Time is a constant. It is always there, and it will always be in your life. Do not fear the passing of time - master it. Time cannot be controlled, but you can control your life. There will never be a moment in time where you do not have a choice of the outcomes of your life. Be the master of your life, and achieve what you can, in the time you have been given. 

Time is a non-renewable resource - do not waste it, but do not be afraid to use it. 

It is your life, now go make it incredible! 

The Façade of Identity

Who are you?

The question itself may mean little when you contemplate the deeper psychological implications of said question, and many of us do not understand what it is we are answering. There are many personality traits and strings that all link together to form what we see as an 'identity' for ourselves, but to what extent does this identity represent who we really are?

Let me place your mind in a scene; you attend a party with all the popular friends, and want to look as impressive and as interesting as possible. For the guys, chances are you make yourself look stronger and more of whatever you take to mean 'manly'. For the girls, you most likely put on some make-up and show yourself off to public eyes as the 'prettiest thing around'.

All social stereotypes, I know. However, the fact remains that when we are in public view we attempt to change ourselves into what we think would make us more favoured by the community in which we live. The second primary question to appear in this post is 'what is the point?’

We all have our certain positions in society which are given to us by said society, due to the manner in which we conduct ourselves in public view. This idea of position gives us a sense of purpose and placement in the community, however this placement of our lives and future, is based on the impression we give to the people around us; and to a great degree that impression is a false lead to the real people we are. So what is the point in living out these false identities only to have our world around us formed in a lie? To many, the answer could be something related to Fear.

Fear is a powerful motivator, and the fear of failure is possibly one of the greatest motivations to influence us into doing what we usually wouldn't. The fear of being cast out of society could attribute to the false identity issue many people have. A popular work of fiction written many a time ago, lends itself to the inverse of this issue; of a person who deals with complete rejection from society, and how it reveals the common crowds' absolute dependency on society. Now, although this might simply be a work of fiction, it still bring about the idea of 'fear of self'. The fear of insufficiency to contribute to society. How can we fear ourselves if we never trust ourselves to reveal our true identity to the eyes of the community around us?

Trust in ourselves is one of the most difficult emotions to attain, and no matter when you accomplish such an achievement, the time will always come when you begin to question your motives and morals. Trust is a thing which cannot be maintained or improved, and we will always take blows to our self-image, but the important component of a damaging experience is to have the willpower to get back up and rebuild what was lost and learn from the mistake you made.

We all have our secrets, our dark passengers. We all have the right to keep sensitive information to ourselves as long as we are the only ones it affects. But do not let these secrets become life changing or harmful to your image. Do not be who society dictates or expects you to be. Be unexpected and unique. Keep your image clean and true, and most importantly...

Be Yourself!

The Lifespan of the Inanimate

What determines a 'thing's life span? Is it a measure of the 'thing's worth or is it a measure of how much the 'thing' has given back to the world? Is it the quality of life that it experiences or is it the degree to which it is cared for? How does one measure such a thing? Or better yet, can such a thing be measured?

Have you ever filled a sink with boiling water and felt the temperature, not realising the extreme heat being given off? I have, not out of foolishness, but rather out of curiosity. This situation arose due to a Physics lecture which I attended, explaining the phenomena of radiation and conduction of heat. On the outside it was a simple exercise, but on the inside it held so many meanings and representations of everyday life. The boiling water, initially, is an abnormal anomaly to the environment and, given a short period of time which can be theoretically calculated, the water returns to the average, normal temperature of its' surroundings. I won’t claim to be the only person who took that message and looked beyond its' scientific meaning to find a philosophical aspect to it. I can however claim that these statements are my own, and they are unique, unlike the, now cooled, boiling water. While they might be unique, they will not last. Anyone who reads these statements and reflections will eventually perish, and this platform on which they are stored will eventually lose this data to corruption, theft, lack of electricity or any other form of deterioration over time. These statements have a lifespan. 

Emotion is an inanimate object in my mind. Emotion does not live, it does not breathe, and it does not walk around and show the world how great it is. Happiness, sadness, excitement, boredom - all of these things have lifespans. They don't last forever, how could they? They exist due to some event of measurable purpose and reason, and events have a start and end time. Love, lust - both expressions of desire. To love is to appreciate while having faith that your appreciation will be justly returned; it is to care for the reason that you want to be cared for; and for what? To prove to ourselves that we are capable of living and appreciating those around us? To prove to ourselves that we are capable of 'emotion'? Emotion is just our human selves trying to justify our inapt ability to survive on our own. To what degree do we share ourselves with one another to prove to ourselves that we can go on another day? Emotion is a blinding aspect to humanity, but in the end, emotion, just like everything else in this world, will die. Emotion, just like everything else in this world, has a lifespan.

Think about it. We as humans spend roughly 80 years (if we're lucky) in this place we call the Blue Planet, and we spend around 15 to 25 years developing and enriching ourselves in the hope that we make something of ourselves in the following 40 years. After that we sit around and vegetate. We find things to occupy our minds. Our life span is of average length, by means of we are no challenger to a tree or to a rock, but we live longer than a worm or an ant, but really what does that mean? So what if we live longer? Humanity is the most anthropomorphic form of life on this speck of dust we revolve our so-cherished existence around. We crowd ourselves with thoughts of our needs and never stop to think - with any intent on changing the outcome - 'hey, what effect have my actions had on the world I have so generously been given?’ We as the human race, are entangled in a David and Goliath spiral which is going to end in our destruction. We are Goliath in the realm of Mother Nature, and she is winning the war with her 'Worms of David' in the struggle to maintain life on earth. We have a lifespan, we just have leech-like abilities to suck the life out of anything around us in order to get 'just a little more'.

I, along with everything else, have a lifespan. And I have knowledge that this lifespan of mine could be significantly shorter than my average counterpart to humanity. Granted this may be an overlooked statement to many, but what should not be overlooked is the message I have conveyed throughout this 'essay-of-sorts'. Just in case you missed the message, here it is one more time. Everything around us, including ourselves, has a lifespan. A period of time in which it can put work into something worthwhile. A period of effectiveness, of successful productivity on which the world can look and marvel at its worth to the good of life. We are here for a purpose. Not a purpose given to us by a higher power, or by those around us. Every one of us has a unique purpose on this Blue Planet, and it is our individual responsibility to recognise such a reason for life. 

We, on average, have 40 years to accomplish a lifelong purpose. It may sound like a significant period of time, but based on the past few years and the speed at which they seem to have passed, I wouldn't bet my reason of life on it. It is time, dear friends, to recognise our time in this world is limited. It is time dear friends, to make our lifespan worth the resources we used to get here. It is time dear friends, to give back to the world we call home. 

Our lifespan is shorter than we think, let’s get to work and give back to the world that gave so much to us.