Life is just too short to waste a moment of it. Really. Really, really. Too. Damn. Short.
Let’s get this in perspective: if the entire 4.5-billion-year history of the earth were condensed down to a year:
- Humans (the genus homo) appeared today, about 4 hours, 52 minutes ago
- Archaic humans (subgenus homo) appeared 1 hour, 10 minutes ago
- Anatomically modern humans (homo sapiens) appeared 23 minutes, 21.6 seconds ago
- The average human lifespan in the US, as of 2015, is 79.3 years. Out of our imaginary year, that is 555 milliseconds. Yes, milliseconds, as in thousandths of a second.
Just over a half-second out of our earth’s “year.”
About the same amount of time it would take a brick to fall 4.5 feet to land on your toe.
A little longer than the blink of an eye (300-400 milliseconds). About a blink and a half out of a year.
In case you’re more of a timeline kind of person, here’s another way to look at it. Let’s say we have a really big timeline, stretching from New York to London. That’s 3,459 miles to represent 4.5 billion years.
The average human lifetime takes up that last 3.8 inches.
Today? 0.000133179 inches, or about 1/30th the thickness of an average sheet of paper.
That’s what you get: 3.9 inches out of 3,459 miles. Today you get to move along by 1/30th the thickness of a piece of paper.
The worst day you ever had. The best day you ever had. Each day in between. Each just 1/30th the thickness of a piece of paper on a 35-hundred-mile timeline.
Or, if you prefer, a blink-and-a-half of an eye, out of a year.
Life is just too short.
Don’t waste another day. Don’t waste even one more breath.
Dr. Les Kertay
