A white and soundless place

I'm reading this book, "Metal Cowboy", about this guy who tours on his bike all over the United States, Australia and New Zealand. He has all these incredible stories about his , people he met and wild situations he found himself in. Its a fun book to read, especially considering the x-country bike t that I am embarking on in a little more than two months.

There was one story where he references a work of fiction he read where a civilization of people had figured out how to live forever.

They had become immortal, suffered no pain or injury, and did not age. Free to build utopia, they lost the desire to do more than reach a certain level of comfort. They put off their dreams until tomorrow, because tomorrow was an unlimited resource. Then, for no apparent reason, one member of this world began to age normally, bleed and feel pain. Gradually, he became filled with passion, urgency, and the ability to see his dreams through. He also became the envy of the world. Because his time was limited, it held value.

The idea is that what makes life so special, so important, is the brevity of it, the implication that we only have so long and its all we have here. We do not have all the time in the world to do everything we might like to do, so choices must be made, some paths taken and others forgotten. If we were just allowed to live forever, the possibilities of what we could do would be endless, but the greatness of any one thing would be diminished by the fact that you wouldn't have to give up anything in order to do it.


I've really been thinking a lot about the idea of opportunity cost in life. When I learned about it in an economics class, I just shrugged it off as something academic and not really relevant to my life as I lived it. Now, the thought of having only so long to pursue all the things I dream of and wish to accomplish is frightening. I want to do and experience so many different things, and the realization that I am limited by sheer time is extremely frustrating. The scariest thing that I can imagine is doing just one thing for the rest of my life, not exploring all the opportunities, adventures and people that are out there for me to encounter.