Keeping it light: The Finite Nature of The Universe

It's funny what a motivator deadlines can be. Now I know I'm hardly being profound in my insights but it really dawned on me tonight.

You tell this band that we have a show coming up and we work harder. You tell me I have people coming over and I'll clean up.

I guess what I'm wondering is how immediate a deadline does it have to be to motivate a person to action?

I mean this may come a shock to you but I'm dying, I don't know how or when but one day I will die. If you told me it was in 2 or 3 years I'd travel, take risks, author a life's work of songs, go for it all at full speed but because I still have the youthful illusion of immortality I will probably sit on my couch tonight and watch The O.C.

I guess what I'm wondering is, at what point does complacency kick in? 5 years, 8, 10? Ours is a finite life here. Why, no matter how many funerals we attend, can we not hang on to that feeling of urgency that says, I should make something of my life? I should get off my ass and show some respect to the this winning lottery ticket I have been given called my life. On a global and historical scale the simple facts of where I was born, who I came from, the talents I have been given, make me one of the statistically luckiest people ever. However, with that comes a lot of guilt when you see people with 1/2 as much doing 3 times what you are.

I guess one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is that of appreceation and recognition. There's no way to exit this topic without an inevitable segue into a carpe diem type monologue but it really does stare us in the face sometimes.

So do me favour, right now, tell your partner you love them, call your parents, mend an old friendship, commit to that book you always wanted to write, anything but take the time for just a second to be the person you swore you would be after you left your last funeral.

So why am I in a rock band at 29 years old? Because I wished I wished I was in one at 25 and today is my only second chance.

Today is your only second chance.