Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
I just turned 30 today. I did not need to see this
I’m 33. You’ll be okay, I promise. I just started getting my shit together.
I’m about a decade older than that and still working on getting my shit together.
Adulting is hard, but at least there is some progress.I’m 900 years old and I’m still learning to get it right. Don’t worry.
Į̴̲͔̖̼͔̭̳̮̖͈̺̺̤̣͆͑̏̎ͅ ̸̛̝̞̲͍̲̺̬̙̳̍͑̏̓̓͘a̵̛̪̹͚͉̠͖̍̈́͑̏͆͗̑̀̄̾̋̏̾̽m̷̻̰̳̻̲̗̖̙͎̋̅͋̀͑͋͑͂̉̾̕͘̕͠ ̴̨̧̧̛̱͇̺̤͈̠̭̝̗̋͐̎̆̓͑̈́̄̿̓̓͋̓͂͘e̴̲͇̫̱̒̓͑́̂̅̆͂̍̏̍̾̕͝n̴̢̨̛̬͎̈́̀̚͜ͅd̶̪̰͓͖̭̭͗l̸̡̧͖̪͙̣̪͔͎͕̟̗̜̦̝͎͕͗̏̏̿̑̂͐̎̈́̌̓̀͑̔̈́̚͝e̸̡̞̰͎̣͚̼̩͒̾̂̇́̌̌̂̈̏̏̉̇͘͘s̵͍̈́̾̆̂͋̃͒̄̾̏̓͘͠s̶͈̰̞͕̣͈͈̠͇̜̫͈͍̜̄͊̇̈̂̕͝,̵̨̨̱̬̪̻͙̫̬̙͔̤̫̣̣̗͛͛͜ ̸̱̈́́̈̑̓f̵̖̩̮̝̲̮̱̑̔͌̿̌͐͂̂̋̃̑̓͂̌̌̚ͅͅr̷͕͈̍̇̿̾̀̓̉̔͌͘͠ę̵̨̧̛͙̳̪̖͚͇͍̮̤̏̑̃͛́͂̐̓̄͑̂̉̎̊͘͠e̷̙͉̼̪̙͊̒̓̓̑̄̐̏̎̇̒̾͛͘͜ ̴̢̡̨̟̞͙̤̭͕̹͚̮̩̗͍̀͑̏̈́̈̕̚͜o̶̺͕͓͈̪͓̬̞͍̤̎͐̇͝ͅf̷͂̓̀̚͜ ̶͚͈͓̀̊͋̎̌͂̽͝ť̶̻̏͒̕͠į̴͈̮͚͖̲̣͊͆̏̽͊̎͌̽͜͠͝m̴̡̫̠̮̩̳̪͓̦̔͗̄͐͊͜͜ę̶͇͎̦͚̭̫͔̭̱͉̞̬̐̊͆͋̒̐̎̒͊͘͘͘̚͝ͅ,̴̛̘͙̖̺̟͎͇̅́̀͌̏̏̒̋͊̅̓̾͜͠͠͝ ̸̗̙̌̏Ī̷̢̤̳̥̼̤̀̚ ̸̢̧̧̛̰̯̰̭̗͚̙̣̟̯͙̰̹͊͊̈́͒͐͊̽̊͛̚̕͘̚ͅa̴̠͇͈̹̫̫̾̒̅̆̏̿͐̀̃͒̂͒̄̉̿͆̽m̵̡̨̛͇̯̹̻̠̪̹̙̝̗̩̻̱̞͓̉̈́͑̾́̓̕ ̴̨̡̱̳̩͓͕̼͉̪̪̹̞͔̟̱͑̿̂̿̌̈́́̑̃̚͜͝b̷̢̧̞̤̥̤̼̩̫͔̳̱͚̣͈̆̽̒̀̚ẽ̵̬̲̮̘̭̫̮͈͙̑̈͑͑̀̈̓̿̑ͅc̸͙̺̜̤̙̭̖̬̱̘͎͉̎̂̍̍̓̅̆̒̾͘̚͜͝͠ô̵̤͈͈͔̼̬̐̌̿̆̀̊͑ḿ̸̡̼̞͕̯̰͉͕̭̙͍͕͚̩̞̣͑̌͌͋̓͐̑̿̽̃͛̍̚̕͜ě̵̢͙͇̥̳̳̼̥͉͒̊̄͌́̌̾̔̓̈́̍̾͘̚ ̶̯̰̫͗̃d̷̯̗̤̻̪͙̙̞͍̦̠̔̈̀̏̔̄͜͠ę̷̜̈̈͜͝͝ṣ̷̙̫͉̦̑̍̔͛͗̊̆́̚͝͝t̸̡̪͍̱̥̰̱̠̲̀͛͋ͅi̷̥͙̦̤̠̮͊͐̒́̋̓͘͜ṉ̸̨̛͙͓̥̳͔͚͌̈́͐ý̷̢̨̢͉̮͇̪͍̟̙̹̩͗̈́͊͆̐̌̌̍͑̇̄̽͜.̶̡͚̖͎̜̙͉̫̣̙̣̗̘̝̯͗͋̐͜ ̵̬̖̯̻̗̍Į̵̦̞͉̜͖̣͓̲̤̠̙͂͂̅́͊͌ ̴̧̳̪̣̞̈́̆s̵̢̯̼̹̥̙̳̻̦̔̽͛͒̌̋͝͝͠ţ̴͈͎̪̤̣͌̔̆̏̇̍͋̚͝͝i̷̛̮̲̘͚̫͖̠̗̣͕͍͚͓͓̽̐͐̏̒̂̔̊͛̕̚l̶̡̞̗̩̮̙̻̤̫̀̑̒̽̈̾̍͒͜͠͝ͅl̵̡̦̗̥̪̫̙͍̣̓͌̊͐͒̊̅̑̓͋̚͘͝ ̵̲̟̰̫̹̬̦̹̇̂̀͑̊͐͂̇̀͋̎̎̕͜͝f̷̨̛̤̭̞͚͓̩̳̱͐͌o̶̧̟̜͛̚͝r̷̩͓̭̳̦͉̻̀̾̾̓̏͆̒̍̄̓͌̕g̷͇͓͙̯̹͍̼̦͆ͅȇ̵̹͚͓̟̞̙͇̗̆̎͠͝t̴̡̟̯̠͓͖̖̥̯͙͖̋̈́̿̃́̈̀͆͊͘ͅ ̴̮̦͖̬̞̳̣͉̭̬̝̘͖̇̃̃̎́͗̓̒̈͒ẉ̶̡̖̘̘̗̘̫̖̞̆́̄̊͆̋́̆̈́͂͌̉ḧ̴͇̼͍̯̗̺̩̘̘̪̗̣̫͈̰́̊̐̇̔͝͝e̸̡̜̻͚̲̬͛͑͐͊̒̓̌͂̀̂̌́̕ŗ̴̙̲̗̱̖̞̟̮̱̦̹̽̍̌͋̒͐̔̿̌̋̌̈́̈̍͠ĕ̸̘̥̬̖̪̱̝̻̬͂̐͛́́ ̸̛͕̞̯̗̩̲̭͔̠͙̔̈́̇̎̇̃̕͘I̴̧̫̱̰̣̝̟̲͎̲̳̜͐̍̑̄ ̵̻͓͚̥̬̬͕͉͚̘͖̿̄͋̈̈́͒͒̊̀̈́̈́͑̀̕̚͝p̵̦͙̭̦͚̤̱̗̘̠̥̯̯̙̀͘ą̸̼͙͇̹̰̬̝͇̝̟͖̿͒̎̆̌̊̌̈́̆̊̈̒̽͠ŗ̵̥́̈͛͑̋̆͌̃́͆̋̚k̷̢͔͈̼͇͕͍̹͚̜̲̯̻̱̝͍̘̓̃͋̓e̸̛͚̊̃͆̒͊̎͝d̶͉̐̔̌͘ ̶̡̥͓͙̲̘̺̳͙̀̍̐̄̍̈́͌̄͘m̷̧̰̻̹̌͗͆͆y̴̨̘̻̥͇̲̹̰̠̺̽͐̑̈́̐͒̍͛́̾́̈́͘͠ ̵̨̛̛̭̿̉̔̊̐̃͝͝c̸̢͇̼̬̖̫͚̳̙̲͙̮͌͠à̷̺̜̤͇̟͂̂͐̈́͜ŗ̴̛̛̲̳͖͔̉́̓́̿̀̊̍͘͘͘͝ ̸͚̼̞̪͍͇̗̘͖͇̲̣̌̀̊̀ș̸̡̛̘͚̫̳͇̤͚͈̈́̈̃̑̓̂̿͗͑̚ơ̸͓̪͔̜͍̣̻͖̻̘̤͓͎̩̮̒͌̎͜m̶̨̧̖̤̙̳̹͇̻̣̩͓͊̆̂́́̽͗̒̿̾̈͌̾͝͝͠e̴̢̡̥̞̬̼̲̫̪͇̼̯̞̪̟͒̇̍̈́̉̽̐̐t̷͓̼̝́̓̂̽͛̀̿į̶̨̧̲̹̖̼̱̲̭͕̫̊̐͗͌̏ͅm̷̥̙̃̍́́́e̸̫̲̳̗͇̗͎̮̩͙̖̖̰̥̻͓̯͛͗͆͐̄̈́̈͂̉̇̚̕͘s̶͉̖̲̟̰̲̱̬̭͔̖͚͚̈́̽͛̐̏͆̐͊̑͝.̴̭̯̈́͑͐͐̔̂̔͑̇̈́͘
Are those the dead see scrolls?
Exactly
The best description I’ve ever heard about getting very old, it’s like being in a nice hot shower all your life and as you near the end, they just keep slowly turning off the hot water until you’re miserable. We just kinda fall apart in old age. The only future you’re looking forward to is your family reaching their own milestones, unless you’re financially prepared, your income dwindles. I’m sure it’s not like that for everyone, but at least in my circles, panel for is more like “I’m scared, but you know it’s about time”
The days are long but the years are short.
The solo is perfect.
This comic reminds me of the same gripe I had with the movie Click.
The message seems to be “Life is short and precious, so appreciate every moment, because it’ll be over before you know it.” Which sounds nice, and sweet, and thoughtful, and is complete and utter horse shit.
There are times when life just plain sucks. When it’s boring or tedious or even torturous, and it would be 100% worth skipping if you could. When you have a headache at the airport and have just found out your flight has been delayed by 3 hours. When your tooth cracks at 4am and you’re waiting for hours in agony until a dentist opens up. When you finished a long work day and just want to get home and collapse, only to find the roads are blocked in a massive traffic jam. These are not fulfilling experiences. You do not learn or grow in any way, except to become more tolerant to enduring unfulfilling experiences. Of course it would be better if you could skip those things!
“Every day is hell, but take time to enjoy the small moments of joy it offers” I think is a better message
Even the bad experiences of your life shape who you become, a life with no hardships would probably be dull, ofcourse it’s a balancing act like most things in life
“Life’s a bitch and then you die.”
But hopefully there are some shining moments and milestones inbetween. Cherish those moments and the good times.
Learn from (and learn to let go) of the lesser ones.But yu can’t
And the message is to make the best out of those bad moments somehow because like it or not, they’re still a part of life and you only will have exactly one life. If you try to skip out the bad moments instead of making them better you only spend a lot of time not living
Again. Total horseshit.
Skip out on the bad moments if you can! Are you crazy?! Live your life! Don’t simply choose to accept monotony just because it exists! You’re saying you shouldn’t try to actively avoid bad moments?! What the fuck kind of grin-and-bear-it nonsense is that?!
well of course you should try to avoid them, but sometimes shit happens. and bad shit happens to good ppl.
it’s how you deal with it that can turn those adversities into a learning and growing experience.
and no, it is almost never easy.Of course, avoid suffering as much as possible. But even you have to agree that one cannot simply avoid all adversity.
Even though it would be nice to have a skip button, the reality is that we do not. So the job of philosophy like above is to make such moments bearable. It is almost pragmatic.
I read it as life is short and precious, and most of it fucking sucks.
If the movie had any actual balls it would have leaned harder into the parallels between his magic remote and suicidality, and it would have shown a lot more of the agony of choosing between experiencing the absolute worst things in life versus escaping entirely into nothingness.
But it was a kid’s movie so there we are.
I wrote myself off as dead at 14, after having a look at my situation. Was not too far off, surprised I ever got a job or lived to 30
A lot of unhappy teens and young people can’t imagine enduring a whole lifetime after they get even a short taste of how exceptionally bad life can be. And it doesn’t help that so many people hold onto this feeling through their lives that they don’t work towards a better tomorrow - making the societal problems even worse as so many people stop investing in their communities and their future.
fuck it, doesn’t have to be your teen yrs.
had that happen in my 30s, truly believing I wouldn’t see 40.
yet thankfully here I still am.“this too shall pass”
What if you’re actually on your deathbed and this moment is just your “life flashes before your eyes”, but in slow-mo? 🤔
Anyways, childhood was weird to think about, I could almost remember the exact moment, I feel like I was there, I could imagine being there right now, but the moment is already gone, just a memory. 😥
Memory is a funny thing that doesn’t work the way we think it does. And when you realize how it actually works, you start feeling a weird sensation of weightlessness and unease that maybe we’re fundamentally, deeply mistaken about what this entire experience of existing is.
The brain does not write data and record things the way, say a memory card or hard drive does. The “snapshots” in a brain are more like linked together associations, a network of connected sensations and experiences that come together in a specific way to actually simulate an event.
You do not recall things. You simulate things. This is why memory is so unreliable and why we can remember false things. It’s very much like entering a prompt into a AI image generator, you ask the brain to create a scene based on the associations you had with an experience, and it runs what it thinks probably happened.
The deeply mistaken part of our experience is that our brains are somehow a logical device for storing data and then coming up with logical explanations. The brain doesn’t do that though, the brain is JUST a storytelling device, it links together experiences to create associations and then tells a story to make them connect. When you understand this, like when you really, finally internalize this fact, it can actually free you from a lot of mental health issues like ruminating depression. (The feelings of sadness will still be there at times, but it won’t be connected to your life, it won’t ruin your whole day or week or year.)
But it’s also deeply unsettling to realize we don’t really have a past or future, all we have is a simulating device that tells stories for the most likely explanation for why you’re here now, and what may happen next because of it.
I’ve always heard it as when you recall things you reenforce that memory. And memory does work in mysterious ways.
Sometimes I can remember what someone said word for word a decade ago, but not what I did at work a week ago. Selective attention I guess.
But I can tell you this… after witnessing my dad slowly (and then in the end very fast) declining cognitively because of a form of Alzheimers: cherish your memory, because one day it might fade away.
The worst part was in the middle of those 10+ yrs (yes he was somewhat ‘lucky’ in that aspect) when he realized he had trouble remembering things and seeing the utter frustration of him trying to get to the pt of a story or some memory halfway through.
I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemyI mean, you could say nothing is real. Computers is just electricity doing magic tricks, I’m not typing this comment, you’re not reading this comment, its just weird electron and radio magic tricks.
Money isn’t real… or is it? I mean, sure, its a bunch of arbitrary numbers, but at the end of the day, its these strange papers (or a card tap) that is required before you can obtain your survival needs. So it is very much real.
Nothing exists, its just atoms doing a weird dance?
This is reality, a reality that is born from emergence. Memories are real, it emerged from a very real moment in history. Einstein have proven to us that the universe is probably a block universe, that very past very much exists, and its effects are present. And memories can be useful. Its lets you know to never trust your abusive sibling again, it lets you know to never trust those power-trippin cops again, its reminds you that government is not to be trusted, authoity is to be questioned. It tells you how to identify propaganda, because you’ve seen it before. It gets you out of bad situations.
Memories don’t paint details, its give you a close outline. The core story are very much accurate, at least most of it. People remember false details, yes, because brains aren’t evolved to handle precise details. People don’t understand how to use their brain and inadvertently invent the details, and mis-recording the memory into their brain.
I don’t do that, I accept my brain is imperfect, and I don’t claim to know everything, but, while I do not remember the exact details, I know for a fact that my older brother’s abuse towards me was real, no amount of gaslighting can delete that.
No amount of gaslighting can erase the pain of being tied up for a few hours by my brother while my parents are at work, to be alone in the streets in a massive city after trying to run away because I didn’t feel safe at home, to be bullied by classmates, to face racism and xenophobia, unjustifiable detained in a police station for several agonizing hours, these are very much real, idk about the details, the the overall outline of it is real.
I’m sorry you went through that, my message is not meant to dismiss or invalidate what anyone has experienced, but to give you a better mental framework for deciding how literally any experience can or should impact you and how you can manage your thoughts to have more control over your feelings for a better quality of life to some regard.
Nothing is “real” in the strictest sense because there is no such thing as objective reality. Everything is just a personal experience or a frame of reference of changing events, but the only reason we think there’s a before and after “now” is because we have brains designed to simulate those evolutions. We’ve tested this over and over in very expensive experiments as well as experiments you can do at home, it’s a fundamental fact of reality, but I find this message empowering, not dismissive or downplaying our experiences, but rather it gives some measure of control over how we are going to let things like trauma effect our daily life.
Free will also isn’t real, but, ironically, we still have to “make decisions”.
What I’m saying is, even if the memories are just nothing more than neurons in the brain, there is still “ghosts” that continues to follow you.
Even if you can get a “mind wipe” and forget everything, trauma often causes permanent brain changes that’s outside of the memory part (hippocampus?), its a long-lasting change. Forgetting doesn’t fixes mental problems, it can actually exacerbate them since you wouldn’t have the memory to explain why you have these seemingly random fears.
The arrow of time of thermodymanics is definitely real, we aren’t omniscient, we don’t perceive everything all at once, so to us, there is a “before” and “after”. You can go visit Six Flags tomorrow*, but its impossible to visit the exact moment you went to Six Flags years ago when you were a kid.
*Yes I know its ironic, given I just mentioned free will doesn’t exist.
(Sorry its just a bunch of incoherent thoughts, kinda just thinking aloud you know? lol)
We were children? You wouldn’t know it.
I’m 47 and it’s really starting to accelerate. Enjoy your youth. Time is short. Do what you enjoy now.
It’s not the physical age, it’s how far from home you are.
As in being farther from home decelerates aging, or accelerates it?
My younger coworkers keep saying on Mondays, “i wish it was friday already!”
I told them they’ll wish for that time back someday…
and then they called me grandpa and i gave them a werthers original, and everyone stood up and clapped
Some kid was being a smartass to me so I told him I hoped he aged horribly. He is 23 now and balding.
Is he…your son?
so when does the curse kick in, you hairy asshole? :P
For the young the days go fast and the years go slow; for the old the days go slow and the years go fast.
—Anna Quindlen, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake (2012)
There was an Adam Sandler movie about this. “Click”? Saw it once. Couldn’t again. Not because I don’t like most of his movies. This one just ended up being too sad.
It’s actually the only one of his movies that I somewhat regularly come back to think about. Not to slag his more serious or funnier movies, but something with the remote fast-forward analogy, and how often I wish I could skip or speed over a real-life situation- it really hit close to home, especially the illustrated consequences of that.
I hated that he turned down the remote at the end. I get that it’s the message of the film, don’t fast-forward your life etc, but it had so many other cool features!
Take the remote, disable the FF button, enjoy being a time lord!
When I was in the 8th grade, I distinctly remember one day getting off the bus and making my way to homeroom, and a thought occurred to me: “I still have four more years of school before I graduate. I’ll never make it!”
I’m typing this approximately 35 years later. I never did make it through high school; I dropped out three times (the third time the school asked that I not come back). Ironically, I graduated with my masters last year.
~Talk about a wild ride.~
Huge congratulations.
Time is slower when you are young. Summers lasted forever. Now I blink my eyes and my toddlers are almost in high school.
Physiologically it’s because the brain is learning more stuff when you’re young. The new experiences stretch the passage of time. The inverse is true when you get older because the brain doesn’t have to assimilate as much. You can kind of get some of that feeling back by learning new stuff, like picking up an instrument, or learning a new language etc.
Probably why I feel like I experience the biggest “time dilation” during childhood after moving to the United States. New Language, new environment. So many different cultures, also around this time, my brain is more developed to be able to remember more. Free libraries, and most importantly, free access to the open internet, stuff that my previous country didn’t have, didn’t even have internet before. Like the world just felt bigger after that plane ride.
I remember reading some kids book about science and plants and space, now I could just “look it up” on the internet. Anything you wanted to see. Sooo many planets and space facts that couldn’t be found in one tiny book lol.
So many memories…
Now I feel like I just seen all of the interesting movies and TV. Nothing is new… except deteriorating politics 🤷♂️
I think this is super true. We moved across the pond and are learning a new language, new culture, everything. Time feels SO slow. This year has been a decade.
It’s been hard, but also that part has been cool and a good reminder that it doesn’t always have to be that way
I am definitely in the same time vortex as you experience
Give up an inch and they take a mile.Give up a day and they take a lifetime.
