An Insignificant Speck

Pompeii

 

A very wise person once told me he was nothing but an insignificant speck in the history of man.

And when you put it in the context of hundreds of thousands of years along with billions and billions of humans who have lived and died - he was right.

If you were to live what most of us think of as a long life, of say, 95 years, it is still barely a blip - truly a speck.  So, if we are just a speck, then why is any of it important?  Why does anything in our tiny, short lives matter?  And once we each leave this place, so what?  Within a few decades, at the most, no one is going to remember us.

Pretty deep, huh?

I spent a good part of my first forty years of life wondering why I was here.  I felt as if there HAD to be more.  I just sort of bumped around wasting enormous amounts of time waiting for something to happen to me.

I thought about traveling and experiencing other cultures but never got around to it until my forties.  I considered volunteering for causes I felt strongly about but the truth was, I didn't feel that strongly about any particular issue.   

I told a friend once, "I'm not passionate about anything."

And then it struck me - If I were to die today how would I be remembered?

Yes, my family and close friends would be sad to see me go and they would have missed me... for a while.  But, I realized I had accomplished very little in my life and had wasted a very precious gift - time.

So, I started putting more thought behind how I spent the short amount of time I would be here.  I started focusing on what and who was important to me.  I quit waiting for things to happen and decided to start making them happen instead.  I found my passions.   It turns out there are many of them  - I suppose they were there all along, I just didn't give them their due.

I have no grand aspirations to cure cancer or stop wars.  And I wouldn't even go so far as to use the slogan of the self-righteous, "I want to make the world a better place."

But I really hated the idea of going through my allotted speck of time without having had any impact on anything.

You could argue that by simply waking up and going through the motions we are each having an impact on someone or something.  I don't disagree.  Not all of us need to be world famous heroes.  For many, it is enough to be a good parent and leave your legacy with your children who will, hopefully, pass it along for generations.  That  may be the best legacy of all.  For the rest of us, being kind and generous to others is a pretty good way to spend your life.

So, if it all ends tomorrow, how will you be remembered?  What will people say about you?  Will you have positively impacted anything or anyone during your time here?

Eventually, we will each just become that tiny speck in the history of man.  But for a short period of time, the fact that you were here at all is pretty damn important.

Don't waste it on negativity, judgement, and shallowness.  Share your laughter and your passions and you will be remembered well... at least for a little speck of time.