Life and the Extension of Experience

Simple rules abound.  Behind the most complex scientific concepts are simple rules - E = mc^2.  Regardless of flavor, all religions come down to a simple rule of faith. Human relationships, often highly nuanced, boil down to a few basic rules as well.   A few interesting, obvious and absolutely simple rules of life in general recently made themselves evident to me:

1. Life is short.  This one has been handed down in many languages and short phrases through history.  Tempus Fugit, literally "time flees", but oft interpreted as "time flies", and my favorite "time's a wastin'", which I often hear Carl Smith and June Carter scolding me with.  A close relative is Carpe Diem, or "seize the day", which is the natural extension of what to do with the limited time we have on this planet.

This rule can take a while to appreciate in life.  I can imagine some who make it through a lifetime without ever realizing the depth of its wisdom.  Many find this one through the process of a "mid-life crisis" - the point at which looking wholly forward clashes first with a contemplative look backward.   This is an epic moment, a drastic epiphany, where youth graduates, and wisdom is conferred.  At this point, one stops to look both ways, like crossing a road.  Looking back, we see all that we've experienced, and just how much has occurred within a limited span.  Turning to look forward now takes on a new process - one that evolves the question of "what's next?" into "what's the next thing I want to spend limited time on".   Until this point, we were in a rush of the spontaneous road trip of life...all smiles and in the moment living, looking only forward as life's events blurred past.  But then all of a sudden, just as the rush of the road trip of life subsides just a tad, we see a road sign that reads simply "Life is short".   This gives us pause.  We look in the rear view mirror, check the odometer, and most importantly the fuel gauge.  Where next?  What should I do with the fuel I have left?  What sort of story should the rest of this road trip become?  This point in life brings many of us to the next simple rule...

2. The meaning of life is to have meaning.  Happiness, success, love, etc all come from having purpose in life.

Now realizing we've got limited time and resources, decisions about how to spend them become much more difficult.  Or does it?  Virtual experience has continued to expand through time...from second hand storytelling to written word to motion pictures to virtual reality, all dependent on the stage of development in which we reside.  An indigenous indian in the jungles of Colombia has only storytelling , while we developed world denizens have a limitless supply of Travel Channel episodes on demand.  These new channels for knowing just how wide and expansive our world is could make it more difficult to make decisions on where to go and what to do with our ever shrinking, and always fragile life.   However, I'm here to take some stress out of that decision.   Seeing and doing it all doesn't have to be the goal.   Watching and reading it all certainly doesn't provide a valid substitute, as that clearly breaks simple rule #2.

Kicking off with a well tuned imagination, we can effect an experience through our real experiences that are closely related.  Imagination can take actual experience and sort of graft it onto a new setting or context.  Kind of like a merger of the real and virtual or develop an experience that closely resembles an actual experience, yet without the spontaneous interruptions.  High Definition video really helped make this possible, as now you can experience more than center stage.  Between HD clarity and wide cameras, we can a close approximation of the real experience.

Before you stop reading this seemingly suspect line of logic, I'll prove it.  If you've ever had a dream, your brain has followed this exact process without your express permission.  You dreamt of a scene that likely involved you doing things you've never done in places you've never been.   So, if it works while sleeping, why not make it work while awake?   Certainly, this is not an excuse to lay on the couch and daydream, as only real experience provides life meaning.  However, it does allow one to take some of the less important real experiences off the list of "life to-do's" so we can make wise decisions, under less duress, about which real experiences we want to pursue.  If you need more proof, take a read of this New Yorker article.  Then, get started on your next life experience, real or effected, immediately because as even Mr. T knows, Tempus Fugit!