Take the Rest of Your Life if You Like

The unfortunate teaching in many schools is the requirement that one must come up with the "right" answer immediately and quickly -- rather than taking as much time as necessary, to arrive at the ultimate (best) answer.  The whole point is to get there at some point in ones life -- and that is particularly important, the later on in life that is -- when one most needs it, and it is vitally important -- to get it right.

That is the failing of much contemporary instruction -- that the fastest way is to already have it in memory, rather than searching it out beyond one's existing knowledge -- as one has the urgency and motivation to find out.  The truth of the past, may not be the truth of the present situation.  Often the answer lies in simply asking the right questions -- and not having all the answers to the wrong questions.

So to say that one finally arrived at the right answer too late -- is to miss the point.  The whole point is to find out the truth of any matter -- as long as one lives.  That is necessary to living effectively -- at any time in one's life, and no time more vitally, than all one's life.  That more than anything, redefines and revitalizes the human life.  The question then is, can one really live that way -- in the present moment, and not just in one's thoughts and memories?

This manner of living, is knowing what one needs to know in this moment -- and not merely storing as much information as humanly possible -- in the event that one should really need it.  At times like those, one is likely to be so overwhelmed by information and irrelevancies that the simplicity of clarity and a free mind, is not likely to be possible.  One is simply too busy doing all those things that do not matter, to have the time, energy and clarity to do the things that absolutely must be done -- as all that matters, and needs doing.  They're just "too busy" doing all the wrong things.

So more important than just voting once every four years, one should be exercising intelligence and awareness every day of one's life, in everything one does --as the best strategy for obtaining favorable outcomes in their lives.  If one only exercises that faculty once every four years, the chances of getting everything wrong, is highly likely -- wishing one could do it all over again, rather than moving on -- with the other choices one is now faced with -- each and every day.

Those are equally life-changing and life-altering decisions, choices and actions -- rather than the endless political debates by those who do nothing else -- and certainly, nothing consequential in their lives -- but to tell everybody else what to do, and what to think.  Hopefully by now, with the Internet and all, they have realized what a difference they can make in their own lives -- and not just for those somewhere far away through self-designated intermediaries of good works and political correctness.

For surely, that is the world we now live in -- with each as principals in their own lives, rather than as pawns to the powers that want to be.  That is the question at the heart of every choice one makes -- whether they are more empowered because of it, or more dependent on others to tell them what to do, and what to think -- as though one is not capable and qualified to do that for themselves.  That is the crux of the lifestyle one creates for oneself.  It has very little to do with the masses -- but is the heart of what it means to be an individual, and uniquely so -- because of all the choices one has made over a lifetime.

None are more important than the one makes now -- in spite of it all.  One can turn one's life around at any moment -- no matter how bad, nor good, it has been up to now.  That is life.  It's not a remembered thing -- or a hope and a prayer.  It is how one actually plays the present hand of circumstances.  And if that was not so good before, it can be better this time -- not by accident or randomness, but by intention and deliberate action.

One doesn't get there by a leap of faith -- or winning the lottery (randomness), but in getting it right eventually.  It doesn't have to be immediately, or even the first time -- as long as one eventually gets there -- sometime in one's life, and the later the better.  Because then, one will have made all the mistakes, and come to appreciate it better -- as long as one has not given up, and fail to notice any difference anymore.  That is the point of no return and hopelessness.

One hopes never to get to that point at any time in one's life -- as that more than anything else, signals the beginning of the end -- when one no longer expects improvement but only to worsen more slowly -- at best.  That is not an actual physical point, as it is a state of mind.  So even if one hasn't solved all their problems by then, one still has the rest of their life to work on it -- and there is nothing more important to do -- with all that time one now has in retirement.  It's the beginning rather than the end -- for those who don't expect that improvement is any longer possible, or even preferable.  One hopes never to get that way, however many people do, and believe it is the only thing possible.

You'd think that nobody thought that way anymore -- with change and rapid improvement exploding all around them.  It's not just the cost of living has gone up -- but so has the quality of life -- that many fail to appreciate properly, or at all.  They simply take everything for granted -- as their entitlement.  The better is not guaranteed to everyone.