“Life is short for those who want more in life, but it is long for those who suffer.” It was my conclusion when I had always encountered the notion “life is short.” It is not that I don’t agree with it, but it is that I found it inconsiderate to other perceptions, that notion can induce toxicity to others, but also can induce motivation that someone needs to do what needs to be done because life is short. Moreover, life is long too, especially for those who suffer and not be able to kill themselves because they think of it as unethical — that they must die naturally.
Thus, I will discuss these two perceptual duration of the longevity of this chronological life, whether it is short or long.
” Time is relative; its only worth depends upon what we do as it is passing.” — Albert Einstein
Life can also be equal to time, and there are ideas that time is relative and time is an illusion so life could, but those are another discourse. But like the idea of relativity of time; life has its own relativity as well, especially when we will talk about its duration.
Like the known contradicting perception about YOLO or “You Only Live Once,” against “You Die Once, You Live Everyday.” They are not necessarily contradicting but referring to different idea about life, the contextual relativity of it is this YOLO are referring to the idea that we have this one life, and each of us has one life that lives every day, and it also dies once evidently, chronologically or biologically unless there is an afterlife, which Epicurus will not agree on because for him biological death is the threshold of someone life.
But these two notions can affect the perceptual duration of people about life, like the notion that if you only live once it might induce the idea that life is short and you need to do something that you must do before death, and like the notion that you live every day might induce the longevity of it and will make them wonder of when is the end of it.
For people who have a short perceptions of life’s duration, it may also be because there are something that they have not yet achieved in life, perhaps good things or redemption for their sins, or they are competitive; want to be superior to others or achieve more greatness than others. It is also perhaps they have the privilege to have a good life and because of that everything seems insatiable to them and have the idea of endless striving for achievements.
About long perception, although there are people who innately want to live long, and what they really hate is the feeling of sadness and suffering, for others it is the same reason why they perceive life as long and want to end it immediately, they may perceive that the suffering in this world is inevitable and the anxiety for the existence of evil is might happen to them and as their conclusion, they do not want that. For them this life is a living hell, some of them did not make it and do suicide, some of them want to die naturally because they think suicide is unethical especially if supported by religious doctrines and societies norms.
For the controversial ideas of euthanasia and suicide, there are societies and ideologies that perceive these ideas as immoral and unethical, that even if they suffer they must endure and live. Though it may sound like to others that these social norms and ideologies want them to suffer, and one might perceive them as evil societies and ideologies. But these things must be conditional like:
If the world is good then it is good to live a long life;
But when it is all suffering then it is hell to live a long life.
If the world is good then it is bad to live a short life;
But when it is all suffering then it is heaven to live a short life.
It is not to advocate that when the world is full of suffering people must die, but it is to advocate that others must consider one another, if one person is complaining and implicate suicidal tendency others must consider what they wish or condition unless it is not possible or unethical. It is to make the world or their environment convenient as possible, but it is also not to spoil them because there are instances that people must expand their comfort zone, or be comfortable being uncomfortable as against fragility.
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Like the advocacy of Viktor Frankl and Nietzche, that since suffering is an inevitable part of life, one must find meaning in it, so therefore suffering and meaning are also factors of perceptual duration of life, that the more you find meaning the more you want life to be long and the more you perceive it short.
But it is not to completely agree that suffering is an inevitable part of life, but it is to agree that it is something that people are more likely to experience it in life, so for people who perceive life as long because of suffering; it is evitable without euthanasia but with the approach of Buddhism and Stoicism that it is to renounces or controls desires and emotions that make perceptual appraisal in life and being strong in a face of adversity.
” Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” — Matthew 5:5 NIV
Like Jordan Peterson, interpretation of this Biblical Verse, that meek means the dangerous man who is able to control it, it is to agree and connected it to the idea of Daoism to go with the flow and be formless and shapeless like water that Bruce Lee is also advocating on — adaptability.
It is to say that people who are worthy to inherit this earth and life are those people who can adapt and are strong enough to conquer it and endure it whatever the situation or environment is. It is not to say that weak people have no place in it, but it is to say that weakness is a sign that there is something to strengthen.
”Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.” — Japanese Proverb
As I have discussed that strength is needed in order to adapt and have perceptual duration in life, strength is also what makes someone active to strive for more achievements, but if that strength is not acknowledged they begin to lose because life is also long for those whose vocation is inactive, that their reason for being is not supported or underrated.
But in conclusion these perceptual duration are contextual preferences of viewing life, it depends on what is life for -meaning, you can perceive life as long if you refer to the life of survivability of species that can survive for millennia, or perceive it short if you refer to your own life that can last for a century or less.
So, it is not to only say that people should want more in life in order to shorten it, or people should want less in life and suffer to longer it, there are also other factors for these perceptual duration, because there are also people who perceive life as long even if they want more in life, and others who perceive life as short even they want less. What really makes this perceptual duration is dependent on the appraisal of one’s consciousness, and the content of this article is about other phenomenological factors of it and for what those perceptual duration are.
Perhaps these life perceptual duration are for good, which is related to the idea that good = God, so if you are spiritual you can perceive that life is for God.
But as a whole, whether life is long or short and what to do with it; is a matter of someone’s appraisal.
