Living to Retire: Life Isn’t A Journey
Imagine your favorite band is playing in a stadium near your house. You’ve always wanted to see them live so it’s no problem for you to fork out $200 for front row tickets. But do you go to the concert to see them play one last song? Do you go just to hear that last note? I wouldn’t think so. Why is it then, that we live our lives anticipating the end? We go to school, onto middle school, then into high school, university, now you’ve got a job in the real world. Now you are earning money, saving money for retirement so you can live comfortably. Then what? You’re 70 years old, with a lack of energy and all this money you saved anticipating this time. This is it. This is what you spent your whole life in misery working towards and well it is frighteningly underwhelming. Why do we live to retire?
“Say when dancing, you don’t aim at a particular spot in the room, that’s where you should arrive. The whole point of the dancing is the dance.” Alan W. Watts, 1970)
A system so ingrained in the inner workings of our society. A system we have followed to the book for an age. Understandably it would seem absurd to question a system that seems to have “worked”. This system I speak of forces you into a journey. A journey of longing and desire of getting “somewhere”. What and where is that “somewhere”, well the truth is no one really knows. There is an endless amount of analogies that can be used, however some people still don’t see how it correlates with their real life. In some cases, we wake up in the morning, to go do job we don’t like doing so that we can support ourselves enough to go on doing a job we don’t like doing. When put as simply as that, EVERYONE questions themselves. One can see just how skewed this system if thought about in its literal sense.
What would you do that you could wake up in the morning and say wow I can’t wait to go to work.
I am fortunate enough to still be in high school. I have the rest of my life ahead of me. Giving me the honest opportunity to really think about what I would do for the rest of my life. Recently I asked a friend of mine what she would do when she finished school. To which she answered, “something that pays me well,” At first glance this is a realistic perspective. Then I asked her what she would do if money where no object. What would you do that you could wake up in the morning and say wow I can’t wait to go to work? She answered “I’d play guitar,” But she went on to say that it doesn’t earn enough. If you are truly passionate about something, something you could do and be happy if you had no other possessions, you will find a way to survive on its fruits.
Are you living life for now, or are you living in wait for the future?
So I put to you the same question. Are you living life for now, or are you living in wait for the future? If you are living for the future, you are not there yet, and you have time to change the way you live. Live for now. Live for the dance, live for every note of the concert. Live for you and everyone you love. LIVE TO LIVE.
