At the risk of sounding like Chicken Little, I have chosen to write this because of the fast approaching date of 12-21-2012. I realize that it is five years away, but nonetheless, it is a serious subject to some.
It doesn’t matter if you are NASA or New Age, we all have to agree that our earth is changing rapidly and whether or not the Mayans, Egyptians, Nostradamus, and the Hopi Indians all had it right and we are in for a wild ride, it has made me start thinking.
We all want to believe that we are living our life the way we should be. Human life is temporary and we all know that it eventually ends, but what if we knew that we all only had a few years left here on the planet? How would we live our lives? If we were all going to be hit by a wayward asteroid or dissolved by gamma rays and we knew the precise number of hours we had left as a species, would we spend them more wisely?
Would material possessions matter as much and would we be standing in line at 4:00 a.m. to get an iPOD? Would we become greedy little monsters or be more willing to share what we had with others?
Would we sleep an extra hour or two on the weekends or wake up early to meet the dawn and fully appreciate its light?
Would we have that extra doughnut or walk that extra half-mile at the end of the day?
Would happiness fill our days or would depression creep into the crevices of our crumbling egos?
Would we cancel our visit to the local plastic surgeon or would we smile and be at peace with ourselves?
Would we become hedonists or minimalists?
Would we prefer quiet over chatter, music to TV, staying in the comforts of home, or traveling around the world?
Would we date more? Would we want to have sex for the next five years straight?
Or would we become meditating monks?
And would we drive so fast and work so hard?
Personally I know that I would want to spend the time I had left with those I loved the most. I would want to simplify my life so that I could make the time to do that. I would find a way to lengthen my days by tossing out all of those brightly colored sticky notes with endless lists of incidental places to go and idiotic things that I think I have to do.
Then again, 12-21-2012 just might be another day and there might be another great holiday sale. Or the birds might stop singing. Just in case, I probably shouldn’t worry about those five extra pounds quite as much. In fact, I should have chocolate molten lava cake three times a week. I should get more massages, forget about high cholesterol and eat more meat, drink more coffee, and make time to see our beautiful ocean every day. I should apologize to a few ex-boyfriends for being such a brat in our relationships. I should hug people a lot. And definitely laugh more.
Talk about an expiration date. What would you do?
Copyright 2008 Robyn Justo
Robyn Justo is a freelance writer who is living, breathing, and learning the new rules of dating over 40. Experienced, but by no means an expert, she shares the frustrations, triumphs, and general hysteria of single life on the Monterey Peninsula. “The Expiration Date” addresses the lighter side of dating later in life. The names have been changed to protect the innocent (and the guilty). Robyn also occasionally hosts local social events for those brave-hearted single folks who actually have the courage to come out of the house.
