On the Shortness of Life

Hayat, onu nasıl kullanacağını bilirsen yeterince uzundur. Çoğu insan onu israf eder, az olduğu için değil, sahip olduklarını boşa harcadıkları için.

Seneca opens with a provocation: life is not short. We make it short. We hand our hours to ambition, to flattery, to anxious planning for a future we may never reach. We protect our money and give away our time to anyone who asks. Omar Khayyam reaches the same place from a different road — through wine, friendship, and the image of a moving finger that writes and moves on. Neither man is counseling despair. Both are making the same demand: be here now, with your full attention, or you will arrive at old age as a stranger to your own life. For Seneca, the remedy is philosophy. For Khayyam, it is the present moment seized and savored. The shortness of life is not a tragedy. Inattention is.