“Human beings cling to their delicious tyrannies and to
their exquisite nonsense, till death stares them in the face.” This quote by Sydney Smith makes me
wonder…. Though not everyone
subscribes to this mentality, many do.
And for those who adopt this mindset, what’s their realization when they
dare to breathe their last breath?
Do they consider their lives to have been fulfilling? Was it good use of their limited time
here to cling to those tyrannies and delicious nonsense? Or do they cringe, suddenly aware that
those things they considered paramount…weren’t? That, in the end, the time, energy and effort put into
clinging to less than favorable memories turned out to be not the best use of their time?
Since we don’t know what our last thoughts will be and are
unable to gain proof of what others thought as they exited life, is it worth
the risk to live one’s life on the edge of regret? When we get to the end of our days, do we want to go out,
knowing that we did all we could to make our time spent here as productive and
positive as possible? Or is it
worth the risk of having our last thoughts—the very last ones we’ll ever
have—be those of: if I’d only…or if I hadn’t…or I wish I….
But by then it’ll be too late. There won’t be time to undo our actions or gain back
time. The way I look at it, I’d
rather spend what time I have with the high goal of no regrets. Of course, I won’t completely
succeed. No one does. And I’m okay with that. But I don’t want to set myself up to
have my last thoughts be those of remorse. How about you?
No comments:
Post a Comment