Awaken

(Image from Awaken, My Love! by Childish Gambino)

‘There was a time before you and there will be a time after you’.

Although I may have reduced a wonderful track by Childish Gambino to a single line in the outro, it was the most powerful line and it spoke to me for several reasons.

Suddenly I feel less important, less entitled. Not in a manner that results in sadness, but rather more an enhanced sense of freedom. Life comes with fragility, the ontological understanding that death is as very much part of life as happiness. I am beginning to understand that I should be less concerned about appealing to others, or seeking satisfaction and validation from others. I say this because we only have one shot at this thing we call life.

Time has its way with all of us, but also it is not kind nor does it display the empathy us humans do. It continues on its journey as if to say, ‘I am here to do a job in which I am indifferent as to whether we cross paths or not, I will keep going’. This involves the cruel circumstance of your life being ripped away before you even begin to realise your purpose, if any. Regardless of your existence, time continues to move in a fashion that renders your very being insignificant.

And so, in context one can seem so important but once gone we as a people move on. If the world is able to spin before you arrived, then maybe it isn’t inconceivable to imagine that the same will occur once you have departed. We find it hard to comprehend this, but only whilst we are consumed within the here and now.

We subconsciously disregard our ability to move on, almost as if it is immoral or inhumane. But it happens, and you have to settle for a place in history to be ever so slowly forgotten. It’s therefore about having the freedom to make these fractions of a second count, to ourselves, to make best use of our time here.

In life itself, we forget that we’re simply a momentary kink in an everlasting vortex of events. You must enjoy the very little time you are present to know you are living. There really isn’t enough time to do anything other than yourself. Only then can you truly live.