Most people, Paulinus, complain that life is too short. To these bitter folk, life hurtles by like a runaway mare, so fast and furious that it is impossible to discern its meaning before it is too late.
I’m not just talking about impoverished plebeians or that entity referred to as the common man. Despair over the brevity of our jumbled lives is heard from those who supposedly have it all, the rich and the famous.
Hence the popularity of the old line from Hippocrates, “life is short, art is long.” Hence too Aristotle’s railing against nature in his old age, when he declared life unfair because some animals have a lifespan five or even ten times the length of humans (even though man, unlike beast, is destined for great achievements).
The problem, Paulinus, is not that we have a short life, but that we waste time.
Life is long and there is enough of it for satisfying personal accomplishments if we use our hours well.
But when time is squandered in the pursuit of pleasure or in vain idleness, when it is spent with no real purpose, the finality of death fast approaches and it is only then, when we are forced to, that we at last take a good hard look at how we have spent our life – just as we become aware that it is ending.
Thus the time we are given is not brief, but we make it so. We do not lack time; on the contrary, there is so much of it that we waste an awful lot.
One more point. A great fortune can quickly diminish in the inept hands of an unworthy beneficiary but wealth, while scarce for most people, if managed carefully can grow, and life is greatly enhanced for the man who can manage his financial resources successfully over his lifetime.
