How This Musician Changed My Life in Seconds

Yours will change, too.

Daniel Gonçalves
Sep 5, 2018 · 2 min read
Source: jambase.com

Whenever I enjoy music, I tend to ignore lyrics. But when Pink Floyd’s 1974 hit “Time” came on the radio, I decided to listen for the words. And I’m glad I did.

This is what I heard:

And then, one day, you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun

The words moving me, as tears ran down my eyes. I stopped, then googled the verses. Genius.com — a popular lyric database — said this: Roger Waters scribbled these verses down when he decided to stop preparing for life. “I was 29, unaware I was already living it”.

The verses continued,

The sun is the same
In a relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath,and one day closer to death

each line affecting me, each word shifting my perception. And it did it better than any philosopher ever could.

Nostalgia came in. I thought about my school years, spent preparing a non-existent future.

Then, an epiphany overwhelmed me.

At six, they persuade us with interesting rhetoric:

School will be profitable .If you perform well and follow the rules, you’ll get a degree. It will make you rich. People will envy you. But if you perform poorly, you screw up your future. Until then, you keep quite, and listen.”

You turn 18, and it goes on:

“College is important. It will give you a good job. You’ll earn a lot. Yet now you’re still not a person. You’re a pupil, unable to influence society; largely unproductive. Civilization will need you, but wait until you’re 25. Then we’ll talk.”

And I bought into it. We buy into it. It’s the reason we continue to waste time.

Instead of writing books, we’re only reading them; instead of composing songs, we’re just listening; instead of creating, we’re merely waiting for the right idea.

These are traps I now strive to avoid.

Like Roger Waters, stop preparing for life. Because you will never be truly prepared; the life you idealize won't come.

Instead, start doing, creating beauty, regardless of age.

Daniel Gonçalves

Written by

Often writing about books and music. Life. I talk about life.

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