As the train door opens at the Yeouksum station and I exit slowly, I see a seventy something year old man rushing to get into the train with the help of his stick. This is just a small evidence of the fast paced life here in Seoul. Even at this age, you are still running to make it to the next stop in life. The image is not so different back home in Dubai although it is not as serious and as fast as in Seoul. People are rushing to get to the next point and trying to make sure that they will get there before anyone else does.

The wise man popping up once in a while on someone’s facebook or twitter page tells us to “enjoy life”, “be happy”, “be content”, “be patient” and the list of words of wisdom are long that we keep saying them everyday and do the opposite.  Unlike the wise man, life has taught us to run and run faster, fight and fight harder, even when it is time to raise the white flag.

With a faster and more demanding life, we tend to loose the meaning of waiting to get something. While we naturally don’t like to wait, anticipation sometimes makes the experience a more enjoyable one. It is very difficult for me to understand how we have made life more luxurious for ourselves and yet it is more demanding and stressful. We have faster cars, trains, planes, cell phones, the Internet and still we feel we want to be faster. By being faster we save time, but we end up being busier and busier. Being faster does not mean being happier anymore. It has ended up being a way to survive. But is that really true?

and The question is for how long do we need to run like this and for what?

2 thoughts on “70 years old!”

  1. Very well put Anas. Another view is to go with the beat of your own drum (not to go with other people’s drum beats; all of us tend to do this at one point because it’s harder to go against the conformity of a group — Even if we know, deep inside of our heart and without a doubt, that it’s the right thing to do). From a movie point of view, I remember that part from Titanic, where Leonardo’s character was being questioned at the table by the mother of bride to be —>
    “Well, yes, ma’am, I do… I mean, I got everything I need right here with me. I got air in my lungs, a few blank sheets of paper. I mean, I love waking up in the morning not knowing what’s gonna happen or, who I’m gonna meet, where I’m gonna wind up. Just the other night I was sleeping under a bridge and now here I am on the grandest ship in the world having champagne with you fine people. I figure life’s a gift and I don’t intend on wasting it. You don’t know what hand you’re gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you… to make each day count.”

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