How Many Weeks?

How many weeks do we have?

I’m serious – take a guess – no cheating – how many weeks long is a life?

A few years back my wife and I impulsively decided to get Shamrock tattoos to celebrate our St Patrick’s day meeting. I remember sitting in a tattoo studio and talking about hunting with the young artist. He was into his deer hunting, and was talking about trips in the Central North Island.

Being in the North West of Auckland, where there are plenty of pigs as well as deer, I asked him if he went after them as well.

No, he said. He wanted to be focussed on one style of hunting, due to time and equipment constraints.

For someone (i.e. me) who wants to do everything, all at once, this was a bit of a revelation. 

I was recently reminded of this narrowing down in a great read (in this case Audible listen) ‘4000 weeks’ by Oliver Burkeman.

Not to give the game away too much, but 4000 weeks is about how many you spend here on earth. 

Seems frighteningly short doesn’t it?

And I am more than likely over half way through. 

There are so many gems in this easy listen.

But the main thread is ‘Finitude’, describing the finite nature of this life we live. The question is how to use this limited time.

So much of what we do is focussed on the future, making what ‘will be’, and in doing so we miss out on ‘now’. 

By building a future life we might be missing out on life right now….

But the reality is, life right now is life – really it is all we have. I am not suggesting that we give it all away for a life of hedonistic instant gratification. Nor abandon it all for a life of monastic simplicity. 

But as I work my way through 4000 weeks – the book and the real life of my 4000 weeks, I want to take a little more time to live in the moment, and allow the future to take care of itself just a little more too. 

We will never get through all that life throws at us – or what it throws at our in-box. 

It is a change of perspective that I can’t help thinking has some real relevance.

I recommend the book – get a hold of it if you can. 

And if you are thinking about getting a tattoo (or another one), maybe you should go for it – life is short and you only live once 😜