On Confidence by The School of Life

Author:The School of Life
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The School of Life Press
Published: 2017-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

VII

Death

There is so much that we put off every day: the relationship that, for the sake of both participants, it would be better to end; the new person it would be thrilling to get close to; the alternative career that promises to utilise our deepest talents; the house with the beautiful views over water. And yet we do nothing. There may be distressed moments of recognition at three in the morning, but in the light of day we bury our longings and muddle on. We find ourselves musing on the interesting things we’ll do when we retire. We let life leak away.

Our hesitation is grounded in a sense of risk. Every move presents us with appalling dangers. The new house might not be right; the change of career might lead to ruin; the beloved might reject us; we could regret leaving the old relationship. But our inaction is not in itself cost-free, for in the wings, out of regular conscious awareness, there is something arguably even more frightening than failure: the tragedy of wasting our lives.

We too easily ignore the most stupid yet deepest fact about our existence: that it will end. The brutal fact of our mortality seems so implausible that we live in practical terms like immortals, as if we will always have the opportunity to address our stifled longings one day.

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