It’s January 2 – again. I can now log one more trip on a beautiful little planet around a relatively small star in a galaxy 100,000 light-years across. That star is one of 400 billion in this galaxy, which is only one of 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. There are over 7.8 billion people living on this planet. And each of them is short-lived, a mere mayfly when compared to millennia of geological time. With a little luck, a human being can live 30,000 times as long as one of these fellow travelers on our little blue dot. If a mayfly had time to think about us, it would probably think humans must be immortal. Yet, if a mayfly could live the same length of time as a human, and a human could still live 30,000 times longer, with a little luck that human could live 2.4 million years. Further, 2.4 million years is a short time when compared to 13.7 billion years. It’s always good to keep one’s thoughts and opinions in perspective.
Maybe it was a mayfly who first cried out, “carpe diem!” without even knowing it. When one only has one day to live, one must make the most of it. Each of us has only a relatively few journeys around our home-town star to become perfect – I use this word not in the sense of becoming faultless, but rather, whole or complete, in other words, what some, like Pinocchio and The Velveteen Rabbit, might call, real. All of us have made mistakes. All of us need grace. And all of us must carry some scars through life. What matters is whether we use our years to become wiser and better, to do more to help than hurt, more to create than destroy. I’ve got about 6,000 mayfly lifetimes left to strive for perfection in this sense. Even so, I’ll need to rely on the Almighty to remove my spiritual imperfections. Yet, it seems to me this task would be easier for all concerned if I used my mayfly-like lifetime to become less of a schmuck and more of a mensch.
I reflect that we should be embarrassed when we hurt, neglect, or exploit others. I’ve written at length about the temptation to serve only ourselves. The Bloodstone Intercepts is my attempt to continue the “The Screwtape Letters,” by C.S. Lewis. There simply isn’t enough time to fulfill our selfish desires and do right by others, which means very often we must choose. Even so, sometimes what we think are the necessities of life can get in the way of doing unto others. That’s one reason that in my “retirement” I’ve offered the content of my website for free. Currently, there are 35 blog posts, 16 stories, and 10 essays. In 66 trips around the sun, I’ve picked up a few pearls of wisdom worth sharing, and I’m trying to do so. One of my friends jokingly called me a “communist” for allowing free access to my work, but it seems to me money has become an obstacle to a lot of good that could be done in this world. Nevertheless, I would gratefully accept a donation to my PayPal account. [mmtrumpetguy@gmail.com]
I’m not trying to choose sides here, but morality has a lot to do with our political and economic decisions. For a long time, I’ve been perplexed by companies that don’t seem to be embarrassed when their employees apply for government assistance to make ends meet. Or when some people don’t seem to be embarrassed that their tips are miniscule compared to the cost of the meal. And, as a society, we don’t seem to be embarrassed when teachers must use their hard-earned salaries to make sure their students have what they need. There are many other examples.
While we all want to get the best deal, to get more “bang for the buck,” so-to-speak, there must be limits to our self-serving behavior. We should be embarrassed when hard-working people are expected to use government programs, or when a single mom gets “a whole dollar” for serving a fifty-dollar meal, or when a teacher must find a second job to stay in the profession. These are manifestations of the same thing – people choosing to use their short time on the Earth to enrich themselves at the expense of others. If this is the meaning of life, I want to get off the planet at the next stop.
Peter admonished us, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall…” So, we must use our time wisely. Like the humble mayfly, we need to seize the day. But, for what should seize it? More than enough money to last hundreds of lifetimes? More power, fame, or pleasure than we can handle? Or is there something greater, something more noble? It seems to me there must be a better use for 30,000 mayfly lifetimes than just getting a better deal.
Some might suggest that because life is short, we should “grab for all the gusto” we can get. This was once a beer ad. Yet, life is not a beer. And mayflies don’t have an extra hour to grab a beer. But this doesn’t mean humans shouldn’t have a beer or a mocha latte with their friends from time-to-time. The point is that beer, or any other material thing, is NOT the gusto. Neither is the acquisition of more and more material wealth. The gusto is that we can share this short life with others. Any of us who has lost a family member or a friend in this pandemic can attest that life is too short to trade it away for things that don’t matter. For the remainder of my 30,000 mayfly lifetimes, I’ll be searching for things that truly matter. I believe this is the only way I can become real before it’s too late.
MurrayWorks 