The One Big Terrifying Trick We All Use to Ignore Our Own Lives

Blink and everything will be different.

Photo by Katie McBroom on Unsplash

In our overwhelming attempt to live, we have forgotten how to live. Am I distracting myself to death? Or better still, amusing myself until the inevitable happens? Neil Postman wrote a book about it. “Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously,” says author Hunter S. Thompson. Poet Mary Oliver asks, “Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” You either let that question bring you back to the essentials of life or keep distracting yourself.

Most people call their “hustle culture” “purpose,” “career” or “finding balance.” I think a lot of what we do is “distraction” with better branding. We’re all just passing time in a hurry until we are forced to slow down. The difference is whether you’re awake while doing it. I’m building my reality on existentialism. I don’t pretend prepackaged life is the only way to live. Either way, the end result is the same: the inevitable will happen. Most of our distractions don’t look like it. We spiral over unread emails.

We obsess over what strangers think.

We burn hours “unwinding” from jobs we never wanted in the first place. All because it’s…