Have you seen them? There are billboards appearing all over town that say something like, “6 + 6 + 06 … The signs are all around you.” Is this intended to mean that the Anti-Christ is now among us? If so, that could be important, don’t you think? At minimum, it could affect what we put in our day-planners in the future. Time may be in shorter supply than we thought.
We all know time is in short supply anyway, but soon forget it. We get busy with the doing of whatever the day has in store, and then are only too glad when it’s over and we can get back to our homes. Then what? We eat and turn on the T.V, or vice versa. Then we go to sleep, and that day is over. In the middle of it all and even if we assume the Anti-Christ’s appearance may be delayed due to traffic, most of us rarely reflect upon the certainty that one more day in our lives is gone forever, and will never be recaptured. If we did, might we contemplate more carefully whether or not it was spent well?
Assume an average lifespan of 70 years. That comes to 25,550 days that most of us can anticipate spending on this earth. Sounds like a lot, especially to a newborn. But not if you’re, say, 50 years old. At that point you have already spent 18,250 days, and only have 7,300 left. And, if the billboard is correct and the Beast is soon to make his debut, maybe less. When viewed from this standpoint, would it not make sense to start considering those days that remain as increasingly precious? Doesn’t the question then become how should they be spent, so that at the end we can know they were well spent?
The answer to that question, I guess, depends on our priorities. Say, for example, if you’re into acquisition, I suppose that you would consider your days well spent if you are the richest S.O.B. on the block, the city or maybe even the nation when you die. Who knows? If you’re really good enough at it you may even get either a statue or freeway overpass named in your honor after you are gone. But, even that won’t allow you to escape the irony that all you will have acquired will go to others who will most likely have done little, if anything, to deserve it, and worse yet, who may even abuse the privilege it affords them by living lives that openly mock your memory. In this regard, Paris Hilton comes to mind. Don’t you know Conrad would have been proud to know that all his life’s work and the money it brought him ultimately resulted in making Paris’ haughty lifestyle, not to mention the popularity of her XXX video, possible? Don’t you think if he were to know that, it would just warm the cockles of his heart?
Others, however, may suspect there is a better way. And, the suspicion seems to increase the older, and hopefully wiser, one gets. Wealth is elusive, and relationships based upon it are hardly friendships to be cherished. True bonds established between us and the people who are put in our lives are what increase the value of life, and I have come to believe they can only be predicated on one thing, and one thing only: Love.
The fruits of our choice to express to others a love that comes from our hearts are many. We see it in some people’s devotion to one another; their deference to other’s feelings; their willingness to provide for the needs of others; their offering of a blessing to those who have abused them; their rejoicing when others are blessed; and their compassion to weep with those who are experiencing sorrow. Love never pays back evil for evil and always respects what is right in the sight of all men. Those who love others, so far as it depends on them, are at peace with all. They are also people who seem determined to overcome evil with good. Not only do they live lives that reflect an abhorrence of what is evil, but they in fact seem to cling to what is good. The older I get, the more I see that it is the people who have molded their lives to conform to these principles who not only have lives worth living, but whom, in the estimation of all around them, have lives of worth.
People who have allowed a love for their fellow man to become ingrained in their heart, and who have also acquired the personal freedom to allow that love to be expressed to others seem to be the people who more and more I want to emulate as my time grows shorter. More often that not, they do not appear to be people who are angry, hurtful, jealous, prideful or arrogant, but rather are patient, kind, long-suffering, humble and hopeful to and with all those around them. They smile and wave when they see you, they hug you when they say good-by, they mean it when they tell you they hope to see you again real soon, and, in between now and then, you just know in your heart they are busy doing something to make your life better. Perhaps that is why, when they are gone, their absence seems so much more notable. Perhaps that is why the longer I live the more I seek to be like them. I don’t know. To me, it seems so much better than leaving those who remain after I’m gone just a note telling them where to find the key to my safety-deposit box and hoping that I remembered to ask them to please try to not use the contents thereof to finance their starring role in a XXX video. Even though Lucifer’s Beasty Boy might find it entertaining, from everything I’ve read about the likely success of his anticipated global ambitions, I really don’t think the movie will have a very long run.
© 2006 Clifford C. Nichols, Esq.
Cliff Nichols is an attorney practicing criminal defense/entertainment law in Santa Monica, California. He may be contacted regarding this editorial at either (310) 917-1083, cliff@cliffnicholslaw.com or www.cliffnicholslaw.com and you may join his blog at www.thedailystand.com