Hear the talk:
I once read a simple statement that seemed like a gross exaggeration: If it weren’t for the fact that we are all going to die, nothing would ever get done.
C’mon, that’s not true. Of course the fact we will die makes it clear we have a finite amount of time. We had better do it, whatever it is, because soon, all too soon, we will die. As they say, no one gets out of here alive. But nothing would get done if weren’t for death?
In England I have TIVO. I assume all of you know what TIVO is -- and maybe TIVO is just a brand name. Basically it is a hard drive that records shows on television -- and it can record dozens of shows, hundreds of hours. We have recorded many excellent movies, and we never watch them -- never. They sit on the hard drive for years and eventually I erase them to make room for new things I need to record.
Inevitably, a “live” TV show, one being broadcast tonight, triumphs over something that we recorded years ago. Why? Why? Often what we’ve recorded has a more glowing review than what we choose to watch live, tonight, on TV.
I realized the other night that if the movie I recorded were at a theatre near us, on a limited run -- three nights only, for instance -- we would make time to go see it. It received such high reviews. Everyone raved about it. But we’ve recorded it. We don’t need to watch it tonight. We don’t need to watch it tomorrow night. We can watch it any night we want to -- and eventually, we end up not watching it.
A friend of ours is running a monthly dance series. The first Saturday of every month he has live music -- it is always the same band, a good, lively band -- and he is always the caller, and he is an excellent caller. Hardly anyone ever shows up. Last time there were only ten of us; the month before that twenty, the month before that 16. Why? Why? He is an excellent caller, the band is good, the dancing lively.
For long my wife’s explanation was that because the same band and the same caller are always on offer, people don’t go. They think -- well, I don’t need to go this month. I can always catch them next month, or the month after that, and they end up never going at all -- or going once, finding almost no one there, and not going the next month because, after all, they could go the month after that, or the month after that, or…
If it weren’t for death, nothing would ever get done. Samuel Johnson said long ago: Knowing you will die in two weeks, concentrates the mind wonderfully. Truthfully, knowing there will be end, a time when there will be no more, concentrates the mind.
If this offer is only available for the next few days, you might decide to go, to buy, to do it. Knowing you have an eternity to do it means you will never do it. So long…
Copyright © 2007 Henry Morgenstein