On the Shortness of Life
I originally intended to follow up on a technical discussion regarding complex systems I had with my former colleague Rich J. However, the passing of a colleague from the FAA this week has shifted my perspective.
Returning from his memorial today, I was struck by the line of people stretching around the block—a testament to a life lived with immense kindness and competence. Though he was young, the impact he left on the FAA and his community was profound.
It served as a poignant reminder that while we spend so much time navigating professional complexities, the most consequential thing we can do is invest our time in others. To be missed by so many and to have deeply impacted everyone you knew—can we really ask for anything more in life?
Seneca the Younger says1
It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested.
Seneca is an interesting fellow - he tutored Nero (yes, that Nero) - and “On the Shortness of Life” is probably one of his best known letters. This one, he sent to his father-in-law Paulinus (the Romans had a different relationship with their father-in-law,apparently). His other letters are a worthwhile read as well. Whether you fully agree with his thesis or not (after all, he wrote this about 2000 years ago - and social media and iPhones were not around to waste more of his time), one thing we can take away is that Time is the scarcest of resources. I suspect Seneca would disagree with some of my focus on efficiency - unless we devoted the time thus gained to philosophical pursuits. He has strong opinions about how to spend one’s time and points out things that are worth studying:
Now while the blood is hot, we must enter with brisk step upon the better course. In this kind of life there awaits much that is good to know—the love and practice of the virtues, forgetfulness of the passions, knowledge of living and dying, and a life of deep repose.
As we make the world more efficient at providing for us, do we become less efficient at living for ourselves? Is the search for efficiency truly allowing us to lead “a life of repose” or is the treadmill just getting faster?
By supreme coincidence this evening a classmate of mine from my graduate school days shared a few couplets from a Mirza Ghalib ghazal. The Sufis and the Stoics have a lot to teach us.
Bazeecha-e-itfal hai duniya meray aage
Hota hai shab-o-roz tamasha meray aage
The world is a children’s playground before me
Night and Day, this theatre is enacted before me
Ek khel hai aurang-e-Suleman meray nazdeek
Ek baat hai aijaz-e-Masiha meray aage
For me the flying throne of Solomon is a game
And only talk, the miracles of Christ before me
Juz naam nahin surat-e-aalam mujhe manzoor
Juz waham nahin hasti-e-ashia meray aage
I acknowledge the face of the universe as only a name
The substance of reality is but superstition before me
You have to remember that for Ghalib, “beloved” is a reference to God in some places. A broader context of ghazals is probably needed to get a full appreciation for the lilt and the tone - but I could not resist.
I take some solace in what Ghalib says - but it is hard to accept that all of this is just an illusion.
1 The translations can differ. The quotes are from the translation in the internet archive.