What to Do with the Time We’ve Been Given
Are we wasting, investing, or spending our time?
In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo laments that he wishes the ring had never come to him, and that the events taking place had not happened in his lifetime. Gandalf the wizard gently tells Frodo that we do not get to decide what happens during the time we live, and that “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
Indeed. It is such a seemingly simple idea, and yet we spend much of our lives trying to decide exactly that. While none of us know how many years we will live, we all get the same 24 hours each day and what we do with them is largely up to us. What should we do with the time that is given to us?
Humans are the only living things on the planet that wonder about such things. Every other living thing already knows what to do. Humans are the lone exception. I’m not sure if this is an advantage or a disadvantage. When I think about the time that has been given to me, I see three distinctly different things I do with my time.
