Life's too short....

It happened again yesterday. I saw someone using the "life's too short" argument to justify a hazardous lifestyle.

What is up with that kind of attitude?

I mean, I agree, life is too short, and that is why I am doing my best to try to make my life last as long as possible.

I suspect the life's-too-short people are hedonists. They are existers, on this Earth for a short while, just trying to get by, extracting as much pleasure out of life as possible. They believe the living of life is an end unto itself. They don't care whether they leave anything lasting behind.

I don't know, and, honestly, I don't harshly judge people who have that attitude. As long as they aren't hurting anyone, they can do as they please. Life is short.

As I implied, though, I really don't understand that way of thinking.

If I am only here for a short while, I want to try to make an impact on the world. I would like to be remembered as someone who influenced others, who helped people along the way. I'd like to be remembered as someone that people truly miss, rather than as someone who was simply chasing fun all the time.

So, yeah, I am not an "at least he died happy" person. Happiness implies a level of satisfaction that leads to complacency. I never want to be satisfied or complacent -- I want to keep moving forward.

Life, to me, is a series of challenges -- games, if you prefer. Loading the dishwasher so all the silverware gets clean. Making something delicious for dinner with ingredients I already happen to have on hand. Setting an unreasonable deadline for a project and finishing it on time. That's how I live.

So, then, living beyond my maximum life expectancy, well, that seems like the biggest challenge of all, right?

We'll see how that goes. Life's too short. Indeed.