Is Life Really Short?
Perhaps Life Can Be Longer Than We Think
“Life is long if you know how to use it.”
Seneca
Seneca wrote extensively On the Shortness of Life. However, he also wrote the above quote - a reflection on how life can, in fact, be quite long if we use it properly.
I’ve always loved these interesting counter-views in Seneca’s thinking. Of course, it relates the “length” of life directly to our own actions (which is a very Stoic thought indeed). It does beg the question of how we should be living life. I do suppose that that is the fundamental question of all philosophy.
I would translate this to my own, much less wise version of this idea from Seneca as the following:
Life is long if we stop wasting our time.
On Wasted Time
Here are a few things I’m sure most of us waste our time with regularly:
Scrolling through social media (the obvious one, I know, but it’s obvious for a reason)
Worried about the potential suffering in the future
Worried about things outside of our control (a huge category)
Holding a grudge about something stupid
Engaging too much in pleasure-seeking
Scrolling through FaceBook Marketplace hoping something pops out at you that you don’t even need right now
We waste so much time in indecision, but also in doing things that don’t really benefit our lives. Sometimes I’ll hear someone say: time that you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time.
Meh. I don’t buy that at all. Maybe I would if I were an Epicurean, but I’m not. We all have a duty to the world, in my very humble Stoic opinion, and if we engage too much in pleasure-seeking behaviour, it could potentially be considered wasted time. Enjoy yourself sometimes, of course, but not too much. If you do, you may find yourself at the end of your life with no accomplishments, no selfless acts, and perhaps no one to share them with.
Stay Strong & Stoic,
BRJT