To live a long life is to have undertaken a long journey
To live a long life is to do things
To do things is to do many different and new things
Long life is obviously not a function of time
All the time in the world may pass — and you never moved
Such life is as short as no life
To do nothing is to be dead
To do something is to be active is to move, to change, to grow, to elevate oneself
Even your subjective experience is predicated not on the time passed — but on the events and their variety
Given period “feels” long when much has happened within it — not when it was time-wise long
And then — if someone wrote an objective biography — how long would it be?
Would it be 5 sentences about your school, your 2 jobs, your 2 houses, your wife and your kids, some grandchildren, and then the end?
Or would it be a lengthy tome?
It’s a great irony that in order to protect our lives — we cease to live
A great risk might kill you, true
But to take no risks is to do nothing
To do nothing is to die already
Please look back at your life and ask yourself how long it was, how interesting, how worthwhile
Then go back to your life and do something new, and different, every day, and every year