“Eat, Drink & Be Merry for tomorrow we die” is a famous idiom from the Bible, quoted by many to express a carefree life. Though people seem to take the first half portion of the idiom seriously, they tend to ignore the second half. In yet another verse of the same book, the writer tells us that, “A wise person thinks a lot about death”. Death could be the last thing that we would want to think about in our life and hence most of the time death catches up with us unexpectedly. I thought over that phrase and found it truly to be a wise thing to do.
The first benefit that comes to my mind is adequate time for planning. If we have a long term solo trip in our schedule and we have to leave our family behind, we start planning and preparing well in advance. We schedule automated payments for our bills, we would arrange for someone to take care of our family, house and belongings, put everything in order and so on. Don’t we do all this to ensure that life for our loved ones continues unhindered in our absence? Thinking about death helps us plan backwards in our life. The second benefit is that it will help us make the best out of every single day and moment of our life. Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address quoted the following
The first benefit that comes to my mind is adequate time for planning. If we have a long term solo trip in our schedule and we have to leave our family behind, we start planning and preparing well in advance. We schedule automated payments for our bills, we would arrange for someone to take care of our family, house and belongings, put everything in order and so on. Don’t we do all this to ensure that life for our loved ones continues unhindered in our absence? Thinking about death helps us plan backwards in our life. The second benefit is that it will help us make the best out of every single day and moment of our life. Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address quoted the following
“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”
The third benefit that I see out of this is that we will be able to reprioritize our relationships. It will help us rebuild all strained relationships, will help us focus more of our time and resources into relationships that matter the most and above all it makes us think more about our relationship with God. For an atheist, this point does not matter, for people who believe in reincarnation, this would mean live a life with good karma to come back to earth in a new body and new form while for those who believe in judgment day after death, this indeed is very crucial, cos once you’re dead there is no coming back for any correction time. The time that we have on earth now is to make a choice of a life in eternity either in heaven or in hell. What if this third group is right? Here’s a good but long story by an unknown author to help us track our time on earth.
I was shuffling toward the basement with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.I turned on my radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. As i tuned the frequency band, Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles."I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.The conversation on that show was as follows,
"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet." He said."Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital.""Let me tell you something Tom," He continued."Something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities."
And that's when he began to explain his theory of "A Thousand Marbles.
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. "Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime!Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part.""It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail, and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy." "So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles.I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container.Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.""I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.""Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container.I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.""It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, make your Saturdays count for something and I hope to meet you again here on the band.
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to go fishing with some of my buddies this morning, and then I was going work on the antenna, so I could listen to the game. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss."C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast." "What brought this on?" she asked me with a smile."Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids.Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?I need to buy some marbles..."
This post is not intended to cause any worry but to help us think forward. Always remember Planning for tomorrow is time well spent; Worrying about tomorrow is time wasted.
Be Blessed
The third benefit that I see out of this is that we will be able to reprioritize our relationships. It will help us rebuild all strained relationships, will help us focus more of our time and resources into relationships that matter the most and above all it makes us think more about our relationship with God. For an atheist, this point does not matter, for people who believe in reincarnation, this would mean live a life with good karma to come back to earth in a new body and new form while for those who believe in judgment day after death, this indeed is very crucial, cos once you’re dead there is no coming back for any correction time. The time that we have on earth now is to make a choice of a life in eternity either in heaven or in hell. What if this third group is right? Here’s a good but long story by an unknown author to help us track our time on earth.
I was shuffling toward the basement with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.I turned on my radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. As i tuned the frequency band, Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles."I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.The conversation on that show was as follows,
"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet." He said."Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital.""Let me tell you something Tom," He continued."Something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities."
And that's when he began to explain his theory of "A Thousand Marbles.
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. "Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime!Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part.""It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail, and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy." "So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles.I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container.Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.""I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.""Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container.I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.""It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, make your Saturdays count for something and I hope to meet you again here on the band.
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to go fishing with some of my buddies this morning, and then I was going work on the antenna, so I could listen to the game. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss."C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast." "What brought this on?" she asked me with a smile."Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids.Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?I need to buy some marbles..."
This post is not intended to cause any worry but to help us think forward. Always remember Planning for tomorrow is time well spent; Worrying about tomorrow is time wasted.
Be Blessed
This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
RSS Feed
