Make Your Life as Short as You Can

I’m definitely not talking here about the actual length of your life as measured in “clock time”. I’m talking about the subjective time you spend on earth.

When I was young and school was out for the summer my mother used to take my brother and me to many places we loved (even though she didn’t like to drive). One of our favorites was the local zoo. I was entranced, and could spend hours watching the several enormous elephants, the many chattering monkeys, or one of the sleek tigers tearing apart raw meat.  A day at the zoo was always a treat and time passed quickly.

But on many summer days I said to my mother, “Mom, I’m bored. What can I do today?”  After all, she was my mother. Wasn’t it her job to entertain me?

She often tried, but on many days nothing seemed to interest me other than taking advantage of David, my younger brother, in any way I could.

Now, at age 79 I know how to amuse myself, which means that I know how to subjectively shorten my days.

I’m often bored on long airplane flights, especially when I’m too tired to read and too awake to doze.  Early this year I boarded an airplane in New York for a six-hour cross-country trip.  I dreaded the long flight, so in anticipation I had loaded a game onto my cell phone. As soon as the doors shut I happily began to play until, to my disbelief, after what seemed like only a few minutes the pilot interrupted my diversion to announce we were landing in Los Angeles.  Imagine that – it took fewer than three minutes to fly more than two thousand miles.

Sometimes I feel trapped in time.  One day last week seemed interminable but the following day passed in a flash.  But at times in my life it seemed that, overall, I spent too much time feeling bored.  But that is subjective.

So if a movie bores you for more than a few minutes, walk out.  There must be something more interesting you can do.  Last week I was absorbed in an intense conversation with a poet, lasting for an hour and a half “clock time”, but for only a few minutes “Alan time”.

If you’ve spent what seems like more than thirty seconds reading this blog, then I‘m not doing my job.  I value your attention, but you’ll more likely read my next blog if this one was easy to read.

A tease – next week I’m going to demonstrate how much you can improve your life in fewer than four (“clock time”) minutes.

Alan