I read often and thoughtfully. Yet it seems that very little sticks to me, lingers at the bottom of my shoe until I get aggravated enough to pull it off and examine the little bugger.
One of those buggers is an idea that a scientist put forward. Eternal life isn't a possibility for humankind because we breathe. Think of ourselves as candles. The oxygen we need to survive contributes to our doom, our wax waning year after year. What sustains us, destroys us.
I often wonder if our proverbial flame is why we feel the need to push ourselves forward in the events of our lives. Childhood then leads to the heartbreak of teenage life which leads to the bacchanalian college years which buckle down to the shackles of work which soften to the domestic comforts of marriage which encourages the repetition of the cycle by introducing a baby, repeat. All of our huffing and puffing at the flame to make it rise higher, burn brighter and faster than the rest. The fire of our lives consume us to the point where we need doctors/psychiatrists/yogis to tell us to slow down. Remind ourselves of the temporality of the flame. Breathe in. Breathe out. Slowly. Thoughtfully.
Yet I cannot deny the allure of the fast life, the fast light, if I'm going to continue hammering this cliched metaphor. The consumption of all that is now. The swiftly streaming and gliding past events and moments that a minute later I feel nostalgic about. In a perverse way, the burn reminds me of my aliveness, my nowness, and temporary tragic notion that all you know and all you are will eventually crumble and wash away, ash in the wind.
Even Jon knew this. At 17 he writes, "There's more to life than increasing it's speed. I hope everyone thinks that, because I do, but just like everyone else I forget about it and let my life get way too sped up and in it. We all need something to slow us down."Which leaves me wondering, what's worth more- a life consumed quickly or that one with a slow burn?
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