Episode 7 Transcripts
Do you ever feel like you’re wasting your life away? Like you’re just sitting around watching the sand in an hourglass sift downward into nothingness? How many hours, days, weeks, months, and years of your life have been lost in trivialities? What percentage of your existence has been spent staring at a screen, waiting in line or waiting for that friend who is chronically running late? How often have you caught yourself chasing phantasmagoric pipe dreams, or giving your time to others for nothing more than the pursuit of monetary or social profit? How many people have you known that haven’t ever really lived and only-existed? As Seneca writes, [quote]If such people want to know how short their lives are, let them reflect how small a portion is their own” (pg 32)
Howdy and welcome to episode 7 of the Plutarch Project Podcast. I’m your fritterer host Josh Nieubuurt and I’m trying to make the most of the next 20 minutes or so of your life. Today we’ll be talking about Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life,” and more directly about wasting ur most precious resource: time.
Seneca, a Stoic philosopher, statesman, and playwright, addressed the issue of time, and our misuse of it, in an essay to their father in law, Paulinus (who was most likely Pompeius Paulinus). Paulinus’ job was he superintendent of the grain supply of ancient Rome. This was indubitably an important, stressful, and time consuming job. Seneca wrote this essay intending to change the mindset of Paulinus from managing the grain supply to managing the remainder of his life’s time. Even today, a few decades shy of 2000 years later, Seneca speaks to the modern world asking us to take into account just how precious our time is and how it is often squandered without thought.
The essay begins [quote]
“Most human beings, Paulinus, complain about the meanness of nature, because we are born for a brief span of life, and because this spell of time that has been given to us rushes by so swiftly and rapidly that with very few exceptions life ceases for the rest of us just when we are getting ready for it”[unquote] (Seneca, pg 1).
How often have we heard the saying, “life is short,” or “time just flies by so fast?” It’s not uncommon at all for those of us more aged to tell the youngin’s to enjoy each precious moment given because you never know when your time is up. This sentiment has even leaked into pop-culture making it a timeless and modern piece of sage wisdom. As Ferris Bueller put it in the iconic 1986 movie Ferris Bueller’s Day off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile you could miss it.” And it’s a maxim that rings true. The average lifespan of an American is 78.7 years. Seneca himself only lived to be about 60. What is 78 years when framed against the background of history? It’s here that Seneca takes this notion on the brevity of human existence and looks at it in a different light.
Seneca writes,[quote] “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested.”[unquote] (1). It’s not that we don’t have enough time. We do. It’s that so much of it is squandered. It’s not always in idleness or pleasure or whatever common conceptions we have about wasting time. It’s not always even what we would consider to be an option- people have got to eat, and eating costs money, right? Seneca continues this lecture by creating a simple comparative between the abstract concept of time and the real-world tangible things noting on how we guard them differently.
Take a moment and think about the valuable things you have that you protect or guard. Money is probably a big one for most-if not all-people. Most folks put their money in a bank, hidden under their mattress, in a wallet or purse, or for the more eccentric among us buried in cans in the backyard. It’s kept safe away from prying eyes and sneaky hands. Time though is given away as if there was an endless supply of it. Common phrases to hear in colloquial English are, “do you have a sec… can you spare a few minutes… a penny for your thoughts and so on” Replace time with money and ask yourself how do you feel about it now? What if every time someone asked for your time they asked for some money instead? “I’m gonna need about tree fiddy. Can I take $100 bucks from you?” You’d probably not think twice about giving it away so freely.
Seneca argues that nature gives us ample time. We all win the lottery-well not all of us, but as a generalization- we are all lottery winners if we live a full life. At 78 years old you will have lived 683,280 hours. Imagine if you were given $683 thousand today. How would you invest that money? Would you spend all your tendies on hookers, blow, and extravagant parties in Las Vegas.
Or would you invest it in mutual funds, housing, worthwhile causes, or starting your own business? If you invested as much of that time well, how rich could your existence be?
Seneca writes, [quote] “we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it. Just as when ample and princely wealth falls to a bad owner it is squandered in a moment, but wealth however modest, if entrusted to a good custodian, increases with use, so our lifetime extends amply if you manage it properly”[unquote] (2) Are you managing your time properly? are you getting the most bang for your buck?
The idea of money being equated with time dates back to ancient greece. Antiphon, an ancient greek orator and what we would now consider to be a lawyer, stated, [quote] “The most costly outlay is time.”[unquote] This maxim most recently-and probably more well known to the contemporary audience- was coined by Benjamin Franklin in his work, “Advice to a Young Tradesman” in 1748 in which he wrote, [quote] “Remember that time is money. He that idly loses five shillings’ worth of time loses five shillings, and might as prudently throw five shillings into the sea” (BF). But Seneca insists time is way more valuable than money. Money can come and go but time is in limited-but if prudently invested in ample-supply.
Seneca believes that we forget that we are mortal, that one day we will die and all that we have acquired or spent our time on will be piled up in the rubbish bin of history. Quite a bit of this wasting of time is spent in pursuit of pleasure. Whether it’s binge drinking PBR until you’re on the bar shouting, “Just a small town girl, living in a lonely wooorrld…” three nights a week-or attempting to be a real-life love machine– there’s a lot of time spent where you aren’t growing as a human. He writes,[quote] “You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire”[unquote] (5). Now-it’s important to note Seneca isn’t anti-pleasure. He has no qualms with a glass of wine or a bit of love making. But temperance and a healthy balance should be the rule. You are a human not Dionysus– the god of wine, fertility, and ritual madness. So enjoy your life but make sure the cost isn’t running your life into a time deficit.
It’s not only in pleasure that we waste this most precious of resources. But also in the daily tasks that life and other people ask of us. How much time is spent waiting in lines, commuting to and from work, or listening to a robocall? How much of your time is spent by other people? According to the INRIX traffic scorecard the average commuter in Los Angeles in 2017 spent 102 hours in traffic. 102 hours. What if your last moments are spent doing one of these frivolous activities? In contemporary society a huge amount of time is lost- and for what purpose? Well, we have to survive. Society has evolved to the point where all of this feels normal. But, even in ancient history time was still squandered without Facebook, twitter, reddit, or even cars. Perhaps it’s just something innate to our species-the pursuit of laziness, or the necessity to exist without really living. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Seneca extended this question of time to the upper classes of his society as well. The folks that lived lives of excessive leisure. He scolded them for their excess and their inability to take care of themselves, [quote] “who are reminded by someone else when they must bathe, when they must swim, when they must dine; so enfeebled are they by the excessive lassitude of a pampered mind that they cannot find out by themselves whether they are hungry!”[unquote]. Taking stock of your time also includes taking stock of your desires. Perhaps we can compare this to the folks today who, given all the advantages money, wealth, and power can give-spend their time idly jet setting from one place or another to snap a shot for their followers on instagram. Or those who spend their time-and wealth-drowning in pleasure, debauchery, and all that good stuff. How are they growing as a person and how are they giving back to a world that has given them so much? Seneca compares all these people to adventures who don’t really go anywhere. They live a cyclical existence that may indeed have its ups and downs but they arrive at exactly the same point in which they departed.
Seneca writes, [quote] ““For what if you should think that that man had had a long voyage who had been caught by a fierce storm as soon as he left harbor, and, swept hither and thither by a succession of winds that raged from different quarters, had been driven in a circle around the same course? Not much voyaging did he have, but much tossing about.”
This leads us to what Seneca considers to be the best pursuit of our time. Seneca advises Paulinas-remember him from earlier?-to devote his time to the study of philosophical thought and to find out how he can apply it to life. Seneca writes, [quote]
““if it is our wish, by greatness of mind, to pass beyond the narrow limits of human weakness, there is a great stretch of time through which we may roam. We may argue with Socrates, we may doubt with Carneades, find peace with Epicurus, overcome human nature with the Stoics, exceed it with the Cynics. … We may fairly say that they alone are engaged in the true duties of life who shall wish to have Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus, and all the other high priests of liberal studies, and Aristotle and Theophrastus, as their most intimate friends every day. No one of these will be ‘not at home,’no one of these will fail to have his visitor leave more happy and more devoted to himself than when he came, no one of these will allow anyone to leave him with empty hands; all mortals can meet with them by night or by day.” [unquote] (section 15)
Especially now, nearly two thousand years after Seneca’s death, there are an innumerable number of ideas and thinkers to contemplate. Heck, quite a few of them seep into our daily lives already: ideas on capitalism, socialism, theology, ethics, and morality. Most of the time we come across them as if coming across of field of chickens running around with their heads cut off. We feel and see a mix of awe, interest, disgust that scoots by before we can actually stop and think about it.
But if we do stop. Even just for a few minutes a day, catch one of these metaphorical chickens, strip the feathers, cook it, and eat it up-life just might become a little more satisfying. Seneca makes the claim that these earth shattering ideas aren’t going anywhere-they are immortal in ways in which we are not. We can take our time chewing them over and-any time we want- we can come back to them and chew them over again-what else can you do that with…other than the slightly used bubble you find on the undersides of tables and desks?
Seneca also writes that these ideas and thoughts of the world’s greatest thinkers won’t be edging you closer and closer to the grave. Rather they will allow for time to be used more wisely, more equitably, and perhaps just may change who you are into the best person you can be.
Seneca writes, [quote]
“No one of these will force you to die, but all will teach you how to die; no one of these will wear out your years, but each will add his own years to yours; conversations with no one of these will bring you peril, the friendship of none will endanger your life, the courting of none will tax your purse. From them you will take whatever you wish; it will be no fault of theirs if you do not draw the utmost that you can desire. What happiness, what a fair old age awaits him who has offered himself as a client to these! He will have friends from whom he may seek counsel on matters great and small, whom he may consult every day about himself, from whom he may hear truth without insult, praise without flattery, and after whose likeness he may fashion himself.” (Section 15)
There might be some of you out there who remember the movie and TV series, “The Highlander.” which is in a nutshell about a bunch of immortals killing each other to gain their power. Studying philosopher-and I’d add in the other branches of the humanities as well-makes you kind of the same; and you don’t have to kill anyone, which I consider a bit of a bonus. By devouring these philosopher’s works and ideas you can add what they spent lifetimes learning to your own existence. Simply by reading squiggly lines on a paper, listening to ebooks, or even listening to podcasts like this one. How incredible is that?
An added bonus to this use of your time could in a way create your own immortality in the world of ideas. Seneca writes, [quote]
“This is the only way of prolonging mortality — nay, of turning it into immortality. Honours, monuments, all that ambition has commanded by decrees or reared in works of stone, quickly sink to ruin; there is nothing that the lapse of time does not tear down and remove. But the works which philosophy has consecrated cannot be harmed; no age will destroy them, no age reduce them.” (section 18? Sorry I can’t read my own notes! :-p)
Let me just make a quick point: it’s not my place or anyone else to judge other folks on how they spend their time. This isn’t about anyone else other than yourself. If you believe that doing the things that consume your time in worthless ways are fine and dandy, well have at it friends. But if you feel like there’s something missing, or that you aren’t living up to your own expectations, or that you could do more… well, you probably can.
Maybe, just maybe, your own brainchild will live on waaaaay after your departure from this existence. Maybe your thoughts, ideas, and way of life will be passed on through your children, your students and pupils, your friends and extended family. Maybe you can forge your own immortality by devoting your currently wasted time to the pursuit life-real life. I’ll leave you all today with one more thought to ponder [quote]
“you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: He has not lived long, just existed long.” (pg 11)
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If you hear an error, want to debate a point, or have some topics you think would be interesting feel free to shoot us an email at theplutarchproject@gmail.com or through the comments box on the sidebar of the website. Don’t forget to take a gander at the transcripts on the website for all kinds of sources, references, and goodies! Keep listening we have a giveaway coming up in November! Thanks for your time! Good day!
sources:
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, et al. On the Shortness of Life. Penguin Books, 2004. (borrowed from the library!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger
On the Shortness of Life: Book Summary, Key Lessons, and Best Quotes
