Briefly Rambling about "Painful Waiting" and Trying to Cheat Death

I normally go to work hours before the sun comes up but, today, I was told to come in at one in the afternoon. I wasn't upset by the fact that I would be able to sleep late this morning but now I find myself waiting around to go do something that I really don't want to go do. My job isn't bad and I don't mind showing up every day but I find that having an inordinate amount of free time before I start working causes me anxiety and frustration. For me, the unpleasant event (in this case, working) is less of a problem than the anticipation of the event and I believe that many others share this trait. However, this "painful waiting" is ultimately harmful to us because it prolongs our suffering and leads us to take actions that don't always serve our best interests.

Spending a great deal of time anticipating some inevitable unpleasantness is counterproductive and provides us with too much of an opportunity to make poor decisions in a vain attempt to escape the inescapable. It is long periods of standing and a sore back that I'm waiting for today but I believe that death is a better example. We all know that we will, at some point, die. We can spend our lives without contently anticipating that unfortunate event and only experience dread as it actually occurs but many people focus on it and feel that same fear all throughout their lives. Because they take a lot of time to think about their death, they start to try to find ways to cheat it. Usually, their actions are symbolic but sometimes they are not; however, they are almost always wasteful, undignified, and self-defeating. People make monsters of themselves with plastic surgeries, hair transplants, and other procedures to create the false appearance of youth but they often harm their health in the process and end up looking worse than before. Some go onto highly restrictive diets and torture themselves with excessive amounts of exercise in an attempt to prolong their lives but that does nothing to abate their fear and it may, in fact, make their slightly longer live far less enjoyable. More than a few individuals have poisoned themselves with new and untested "miracle cures" to diseases that they don't even have.

It is better to just deal with the things that we don't want to deal with when they come and to chill-the-fuck-out in the mean time. We will end up going through a lot of bullshit that we would rather not experience during our lifetimes. There isn't much that we can do about that fact. If we spend all our time focusing on it, we allow it to rule our lives and that is no way to live, if you ask me. I think that our own happiness is better served if we enjoy our time as much as we can while we are still able to. Try not worry about what you must do until it is time to do it.

I have to get ready for work now so I think I'll end here.

Peace.

All the images in this post are sourced from the free image website unsplash.com.