Is it about retirement?
I was looking at an advertisement on securing your retirement. And saw a photo of group of senior citizens paddling a raft smiling, in a peaceful river. The bold letters said, "JOIN US TO SECURE YOUR RETIREMENT". It sounded wonderful but made me smile. I am all about making a retirement plan, but of course, hardly I would be rafting when I am above sixty. What are they thinking? I am getting old wiser, not dumber.
This is not the first time I saw such an advertisement. Often, I would see, funeral plans, selling on live TV. Again, I am not against someone making an arrangement for their death. But what about the advertisement, which makes me want to think my funeral would be a _____ wedding in atmosphere. What is the point? Aren't we going too far with this? I think for anyone who doesn't understand what life is, that will be a good trap to fall into.
If you are living, you can't retire.
In a way it makes me sad to look at life as something which ends up in retirement and death. And I refuse to believe those advertisements about happiness found in retirement. No, something is fundamentally wrong when we look at the life in this way. I call it Economists way of looking at life.
I had opportunity to view a set of lectures about financial markets by professor of Economics Mr. Robert J Shiller in yale university. If you check, you tube you might find this interesting. Finance is the modern man's tool for doing some significant and massive work. When we look at the evergreen container ship which was stuck in Suez Canal in 2021, we amuse ourselves with engineering and creativity behind these gigantic projects. Yet it is the finance, which has made it possible for people to collaborate together to make those marvels. The ship was massive as well as the Canal itself.
One important aspect of individuals finance is investment horizon. That exactly means what it means. If you are the sun, sunrise is your youth. Noon where you are ferocious at work and earning is your Middle Ages. And the golden hour is your retirement, and the investment horizon is when you have decided to withdraw your savings to make it bit colorful just before your death.
The power of now approach to life
I find it frustrating to look at life in this approach. Infact, I have written a great deal on this in zero of life. However, there is more promising approach to look at life instead of constant march from birth to death. And that is power of now approach and sometimes mistakenly taken as mindfulness.
Being aware of the present and to identify, whatever good or bad happens in this moment. Or the second we call life. This is fairly good view about life I agree. It is about now, right? You must feel good now. What is the point making a fortune and be dead before even retire? If you can't go on a vacation to your favorite destination tomorrow what is the point saving for twenty years to do it when you can't even hear. Maybe this is the reason why more and more youth involved in a radical approach to life. To feel good now.
There is no retirement when this approach is considered. Instead, you can rest.
However, I find positives and negatives in both approaches. More importantly when I think the now approach, I see similar errors. If we can pack life into a second. Why stop there? We also can pack it into a millisecond.
It's not about retirement
If we can pack life into a millisecond why stop there? We can pack it into a microsecond. I see there is no depth to this and only imagination can show that maybe this also is wrong? If it is logical to pack life into a microsecond then there cannot be a meaning to the life. As to even form a meaning we need at least a second! Otherwise, good and evil, heaven and hell, rich and poor will disappear together with the self into thin air.
Poem -> Happiness poem.
Time -> understanding time
Relative nature -> simple truths
So, in summary, I can see problems in both approaches to life. The economist's way and the mindfulness way. So, this lead me think maybe 🤔 it is just relative. Maybe mind is a magician who creates things out of thin air after all.
What is your approach to life?
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