A Generous Waste of Time

There is a scene in the movie “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” where Judi Dench sits on the roof of a building in Mumbai, and she talks to her business partner about her private life and her concerns.

She is in love with an older gentleman, who lives with her in the same retirement hotel in India. He feels the same way and wants to take the relationship a step further, but she feels she needs more time to adjust to the new situation. She is in her late 70’s, and so is he.

“I just need to tell him that I need a little bit more time,” she explains, “I am sure he will understand.”

Her business partner, a very wise young Indian man looks at her and asks, “How much time to you have?”

She doesn’t say a word after that; she just looks at him.

A sagacious statement indeed, it took my breath away. Guilty as charged, I am the same way. I too tend to kick the can down the curb. Yes, one day I will go and book  the pottery class I always wanted to take. One day, in a future far, far away, I will have time to do all the things I have planned.

Maybe in a few years from now, when I will retire –even though I know, I will never really stop working.

We all don’t know how much time we have on this planet, yet we often decide to make generous plans with the rest amount of time we think we have.

My neighbor right across the street, she just got a possible expiration date. She just found out she has advanced cancer in her lungs and her pancreas. Once again Cancer has an innocent victim in its claws. The outcome of the fight is unknown, but chances are not good. This time, the big “C” might win.

The older I get, the more I watch people around me disappear. People – taken by tragic accidents, people of all ages –young and old- fighting deadly diseases. I have done so myself; death knocked on my door twice and twice I showed him the middle finger and slammed the door.  I know he will be back, this guy is persistent.

The fact remains I am not a spring chicken. I should not be so generously wasting my time the way I do.

This beautiful marriage to my best friend could be over one day -one day one of us will have to leave the other. Maybe tomorrow, perhaps we have 30 more years?

We just don’t know?

“Don’t worry; there will be another election in just four years,” a friend of mine replied when we talked about this troubling election.

What if we don’t have four more years? What if we put the nuclear codes in the hands of a lunatic and POOF we all go down the drain?

We all are too generous with time.

Talk the talk, walk the walk! And now I will make the hair appointment and I will get the few peacock blue highlights I want to try so badly. Also, there is this little chest that I don’t need but would like to have. Guess what? It’s time!

 

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Generous