Trying to make the most out of our Four Thousand weeks

Country Living with Francis Farragher

MOST of us who frequent a workplace or a place of imbibement are most likely to have been involved in a lotto syndicate of some description over recent weeks. The lure of the big jackpot has drawn most of us into a kind of a gaming frenzy (well at €2 a pop, a harmless enough one!) with the name of the game to get a big number of people putting in a small amount of cash to try and end our financial concerns for once and for all.

Of course, it is all part of an innocent fantasy, with the chances of success running into the millions to one category, but the consolation of a syndicate is that if the unbelievable ever did happen, then the amount of lucre to be shared out, would be of a sufficiently modest nature to ensure that some level of personal sanity might subsequently prevail.

I have to admit that I sometimes have this nightmare scenario of coming into a large amount of wealth as I’m about to pop my clogs with no chance of making any earthly use of it, as my last hours are whittled away with legal decisions about how my newly found wealth would be disposed of.

The older one gets the more one realises that time – not money – is by far and away the most valuable commodity to appreciate but of course it’s a type of mercury that never stays in our grasp or is never one that can be bought in any high-street store.

We’re all familiar with the Benjamin Franklin quote in relation to the two certainties of life – death and taxes – and of course sooner or later we’re all going to be faced with that individual doomsday scenario when the final bell tolls for us. It prompted one Elbert Hubbard to come out with another great quote about our fate namely that: “Do not take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.”

Sometimes when browsing around in a bookstore, I find myself drawn to that section that tells you how to make the most of life and your time. Most times, after a flick through a few pages, no purchase is made but a few weeks back, I couldn’t resist spending a few bob on a book called ‘Four Thousand Weeks’ by Oliver Burkeman, which explores ways in which we can try to make best us of that very short window of time we have on this earth.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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