Life is short? No it isn't! (1 Viewer)

[Mike Graham]

This subject reminds of a line from Chris Rock, who stated something to the effect of:

"Life can be short, but it can be very long if you've made the wrong choices."

 

[MarkHastings]

The two go hand in hand. The reason why your perception changes is because of the metabolic change.

It's the old "I can't do things like I used to when I was younger."

 

[Holadem]

Er... No. I would like to see some sort of evidence or scientific reasoning (because metabolism is a documented biological process) for this very bold claim.

How on earth does metabolism affect perception of one's lifespan?

--
H

 

[nolesrule]

What does that have to do with passage of time? All it means is the body can no longer do what it once was capable of because it is starting to deteriorate.

The pereived passage of time is related directly to how much time passage a person has experienced, as I stated before.

Does metabolism decrease during the time of youth? Summer vacation was the same length between kindergarden and 1st grade as it was between junior and senior year of high school, yet it felt much much shorter. I don't think metabolism can explain that. My metabolic rate didn't start slowing till after college.

 

[MarkHastings]

Of course that also is a contributing factor, but I doubt it's the ONLY factor. I'm merely throwing out what I heard from a scientist which I believe, unless someone can prove it wrong.

EDIT: See the next post for an interesting article I found

 

[MarkHastings]

Here's a web page that talks about our perception of time:
http://www.gsm.uci.edu/~mckenzie/nature.htmI didn't read the entire article and I know that the evidence isn't conclusive, but what I did read sounded a lot like the health show I saw on tv. Again, it seems to make a lot of sense to me how metabolism and time are related.

 

[JonZ]

"Life is loooooong. Especially if you make the wrong decisions"
Chris Rock

 

[Patrick Sun]

As you grow older, there are more demands on your time, so the time you have to do all you need to do isn't available in the quantity that you had when you were younger with less demands on your time and attention.

 

[John Watson]

What Patrick says rings very true.

In a similar thought, I remember making fun of Mum when she couldn't keep our names straight. Knowing then what I know now, I'd point out to the snotty little buggers that compared to me they've got nothing to remember.

All a matter of perspective.

"Never put off til tomorrow what you can do today", and don't forget about the sins of omission :frowning:

Then there's people who don't even have time to read a thread before they make a post

 

[BrianW]

Gary, it's not that life is short because you could die at any moment. Even if you live to be 100, at the end, you'll wonder, marvel, and regret how it all could possibly have passed by in the blink of an eye.

The point is that no matter how long you live, you don't have the time you think you have to do all the things you intend to do with your life. If you're in your teens, twenties, or thirties, and you think you have all the time in the world to do all the stuff you want to do, then some old geezer needs to smack you upside the head and tell you: life is short.

Because truly before you know it, that old geezer will be you.

 

[Holadem]

I added "diminishing"...

--
H

 

[MarkHastings]

Then after I finished with that theory, I threw out another theory that I feel is realted and has a strong influence. I'm sorry if I phrased it wrong by saying "It all has to do with your metabolism." - I wasn't trying to infer that this is the END ALL/ONLY explanation and that everyone else is wrong. It's just another theory I find is worth noting and should be dismissed as quickly as you say it should.

Life's too short for these kinds of back and forths

 

[TonyD]

i agree with bob graz when he talked about time being measured differently as we get older.

i remember when i would think about time in am'ts of days, when i thought about events or periods of my life.
then i remembered events taking place during a course of a period of a weekly time frame.

basically, now, if i remember something that happened before i'll say "i remember december from 2000, when we went to florida."

so know i remember, or project time frames by the month.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

That's what I think too. The older you get, the more memories you have, and you end up spending more time on stuff you saw/heard (whatever) before.

Sometimes I wish I could get a reset button.

I wonder what goes through the minds of the truly mentally challanged, or like in '50 First Dates', what if you couldn't remember yesterday?

That is all off topic, though. Life isn't short because of our brain overloading itself with useless (and sometimes useful) crap, but that if an opportunity arrises, seize it, because You may not be able to do it tomorrow.

Glenn