Alex de Carvalho, 2007. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode This post isn't strictly to do with writing, but it deals with a personal philosophy that has encouraged me to write. There are a number of things that I can't stand in life, because I have an inordinately short fuse that I intend to fix some day. One of the things I can't stand is wastage. Perhaps it's because I'm part Dutch. I used to work in a restaurant, and every time I came across a barely touched piece of caramel slice, I wanted to scream, even though I hate caramel. It was just such an unbelievable waste. Every time I see someone buying a lotto ticket, I think of waste.
I'm just an average person - don't consider myself brilliant - so you mustn't take what I say next wrongly. But so many people my age - early twenties - waste their lives. If they know what they want to do with their lives, they spend more time talking about it or planning for it than ever doing it. If they don't know what they want to do with their lives, they do very little to attempt discovering it. They don't have the willpower to choose, and when they choose, they lack the determination and endurance to pursue.
To my mind, this is perhaps one of the greatest tragedies in the west today. It honestly breaks my heart. Not only that, but I scarcely understand it. I can scarcely understand why, after doing a degree, someone would sit around barely making the effort to get a job. I can scarcely understand why young people, brilliant people, who know they want to do something else with their lives, spend so many years working in supermarkets. I don't understand why there aren't more home-grown businesses. I don't understand why people who want to write a book don't. Understand this is all my opinion, and I can only back it up on my own life experience. Still, if it rings true with you too, then maybe it is something worth considering.
Perhaps the greatest thing people waste today is not food or money. Perhaps it is lives.
"Carpe diem". I, personally, don't subscribe to the belief that nothing happens after death. I know that we weren't made to die; I can feel it in my heart. Yet I too believe that life in this world is limited - limited, but not purposeless. If we were put here, there was a reason. We ought to make every second count. That's where I agree with that marvellous clip in which Robin Williams says over and over: "Seize the day".
Let's not live another moment without pushing on toward a greater goal. God made us in His image, and He created a world. I'm sure such a Creator doesn't mean for us to wait on fate. Carve your own future. Don't wait another second. Don't waste another life.
I'm just an average person - don't consider myself brilliant - so you mustn't take what I say next wrongly. But so many people my age - early twenties - waste their lives. If they know what they want to do with their lives, they spend more time talking about it or planning for it than ever doing it. If they don't know what they want to do with their lives, they do very little to attempt discovering it. They don't have the willpower to choose, and when they choose, they lack the determination and endurance to pursue.
To my mind, this is perhaps one of the greatest tragedies in the west today. It honestly breaks my heart. Not only that, but I scarcely understand it. I can scarcely understand why, after doing a degree, someone would sit around barely making the effort to get a job. I can scarcely understand why young people, brilliant people, who know they want to do something else with their lives, spend so many years working in supermarkets. I don't understand why there aren't more home-grown businesses. I don't understand why people who want to write a book don't. Understand this is all my opinion, and I can only back it up on my own life experience. Still, if it rings true with you too, then maybe it is something worth considering.
Perhaps the greatest thing people waste today is not food or money. Perhaps it is lives.
"Carpe diem". I, personally, don't subscribe to the belief that nothing happens after death. I know that we weren't made to die; I can feel it in my heart. Yet I too believe that life in this world is limited - limited, but not purposeless. If we were put here, there was a reason. We ought to make every second count. That's where I agree with that marvellous clip in which Robin Williams says over and over: "Seize the day".
Let's not live another moment without pushing on toward a greater goal. God made us in His image, and He created a world. I'm sure such a Creator doesn't mean for us to wait on fate. Carve your own future. Don't wait another second. Don't waste another life.
