30,000 Days

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30,000 days is a lifetime

in most western societies.

Roughly 82 years,

with one-fourth to one-third

of all your time

given up to sleep.

 

How will you spend down

your 30,000 day account?

You don’t know how many

are allocated to you

and you can’t earn any more.

There is no blueprint,

nobody will audit you,

and the only true rewards

are self-defined.

 

Some days are for rest or downtime.

Some are frivolously frittered away.

Errands and life’s obstacles and tasks

easily eat up thousands of days.

Will the rest be fulfilling,

make you proud,

and make you feel

like you’ve accomplished

something or other?

 

JFK lived 16,979 days,

Michael Jackson 18,564.

Jimi Hendrix only 10,158

and Jimmy Carter 34,274 so far.

Me, I’m working on 23,557.

Hopefully I’ve got 6,443 more to go,

to parcel out and divide up

into the categories of my life.

 

I devote so few hours to some things,

thankful to be able to focus

on all the rest,

but waste so many more

on the meaningless

and backsliding

counter-productive

and life-shortening activities.

 

If you have the luxury

of choosing each day’s activities

you can also decide

how important

each day is to you.

One of so many,

or one of so few.

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