From “The Human Condition: A
User’s Manual” by Arnold Kunst
7 December
We think we've really done it
[“He who dies with the most toys wins.”] when we've gotten a hernia reaching
for the baubles our culture determines to be the choicest fruit on the tree of
"life" - up there, just beyond our reach. But more pertinent is the
fact that on our deathbed very few of us are going to say, "If only I had
spent more time at the office."
Put it this way: Assuming
you’re a young person, there are parts of your anatomy that you are proud of
right now because they glow pink and firm, but in a few brief years those same
parts will become, shall we say, less firm. Your ear lobes, jowls, tummy are
going to hang there, like a dog biscuit that's been soaking apathetically for
three days in a stagnant puddle. Your thighs will end up looking like congealed
cottage cheese; when you lift your arm off the table, the part in the middle is
going to leave last. It's called aging, and there's no escape from it. Between
now and then you are going to exchange your youth for something, or some series
of things, that you will have valued between now and then. They won’t come free
– nothing of value ever does. So, be sure that the thing[s] you get is/are
worth the inevitable price you're going to pay anyway.
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