Entropy Pt. 1: More Is Not Better | How Much Red Bull?!?
Impress your friends. Use the word “entropy” when you say “no.” It sounds like this:
“I’d like to _________________ (fill in the blank) but if I do, entropy will kick in.”
In physics, entropy is a measure of the unavailability of a system’s energy to do work. It is a measure of waste, humanly speaking. Consider your self. Listen to your body. What energy is not available to you because you short yourself on good health habits? What original thoughts are short-circuited by channel surfing? What skill and pleasure is lost by substituting phony soaps for real interactions with people you respect or love?
When did life become a spectator sport?
Both of my parents recently passed on. The trauma of those events was enough to slow me down at work and drop me into bed at any excuse. I inherited pictures, dim memories of childhood meetings and stories, compassion for caregivers and seniors.
I have brief notes on what little a 93 year old father and 88 year old mother choose to pass on in their last years. I have a thinking style formed by them both in my childhood, the postwar years.
What else? For months after the events I am still staring off into space and tearing up over what might have been.
What was their purpose in living? Did I miss something in the routine panic of my life? Is Dad’s trip book and photos of the Great Wall of China really that relevant to my life and that of my grandchildren?
Mom placed 300 photos of American wilderness into three albums her last month of life. What lessons should I learn about my life in the bigger picture of things? Ignorance of history condemns us to relive it.
America lacks mentors not for lack of willing seniors but for lack of young people willing to listen.
Should I have spent more time with them rather than adventure my own way? What was valuable about their values? What should be trusted and what trashed? How can I honor their achievements in ways relevant to my life now? I don’t have time for all this.
“I’d like to… (fill in the blank)… but if I do, entropy will kick in. Then my priorities will not be met. My legacy will be a song unsung. My grandchildren will not know who I was.
To them I will be a sepia face in faded photos.”
Will we conclude our lives drinking Red Bull and yawning, “Whatever?”
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Reply from Judith: It was disjointed…stream of cansciousness almost…because of my grief, but I suppose that got a message across about sticking with our priorities (family, legacy, activity as opposed to passivity).