Time Skips Ahead Without Looking Back

Time is humanity’s best invention, one I don’t think will ever be surpassed.

After all, how else would we get anything done?

The ticking of a clock, X’s piling up on the calendar, and birthday parties are all reminders that time “skips ahead without looking back”.

So if time keeps going, why shouldn’t you?

Sure, things will get tough and some days you'll be heartbroken, depressed, angry, or tired, but that shouldn’t change the way you go about things.

You should always keep moving because if time is going to keep going anyway, it would be a waste not to do the same.

This is summed up beautifully in one of my favorite stories, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, when the protagonist explains why she can’t stop moving forward:

“If I stop moving, I’ll drown in grief. I have to go forward…”

Similarly, in Stoicism, there is an emphasis on death.

Memento Mori — “Remember that you will die”

It’s important to remember that. I think about it every day.

If you think it’s too scary or too grim to think about every day, that’s the point.

The more that thought scares you, the more work you need to do before it’s your time.

Whether you believe in an afterlife or not is irrelevant because one fact remains the same for everyone: you only get one shot at life on Earth.

Only so many ticks on the clock.

Only so many crossed-out calendar dates.

Only so many birthdays.

You’re allowed to feel sad and mad and all that lies in between, but don’t stop moving.

Go to work upset, but get your job done anyway.

Grieve your dog or your cousin, but be a good human being for those who are with you now.

If time skips along without looking back, skip along with it.

Time doesn’t wait until you feel ready, so neither should you.

Einstein’s Dreams is a criminally underrated short story collection. It was written by the physicist Alan Lightman, and it’s a beautiful look into different worlds where time flows differently. You can read it in a sitting or two, and I guarantee that you’ll love it if you give it a chance.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is Studio Ghibli’s first film, but it is based on the graphic novel of the same name. The film is great, but the graphic novel covers so much more ground and hits deeper. If you watch the film and like it, I’d suggest giving the graphic novel a read for a meditation on what it means to be human, and just how complicated environmentalism is.

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