I enjoy watching enhanced, colorized versions of very old videos like this and this and this.
They provide a healthy dose of perspective—a reminder that our time on this planet goes by very quickly. One day you are young and, before you know it, you are gone.
The flight of time and the human mutability it entails is a timeless theme in literature and music. I was first struck by this theme as a young teenager listening to the Rolling Stones song “Time Waits for No One.” While not renowned for tackling serious themes in their songs, much less in a profoundly poetic way, this one really got my attention:
Star-crossed in pleasure
The stream flows on by.
Yes, as we’re sated in leisure
We watch it fly.
Time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for me.
Time can tear down a building
Or destroy a woman’s face.
Hours are like diamonds.
Don’t let them waste.
Time waits for no one
No favors has he.
Time waits for no one
And it won’t wait for me.
Men, they build towers to their passing
Yes, to their fame everlasting.
Here he comes chopping and reaping.
Hear him laugh at their cheating.
And time waits for no man
And it won’t wait for me.
Yes, time waits for no one
And it won’t wait for me.
Drink in your summer.
Gather your corn.
The dreams of the night time
Will vanish by dawn.
But time waits for no one,
And it won’t wait for me.
This song’s message grows only more powerful as the years roll on. For the two young men who composed it, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, are now in their mid-80s.
A much older and far more influential song conveys the same message in the form of a prayer:
Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.
This song, now known as Psalm 39, was written 3000 years ago by David, King of Israel. He, too, was once young and seemingly invincible, but time didn’t wait for him either.
Nor will it wait for us. The lesson? David’s son, Solomon, summed it up well when he said,
Death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart. (Eccl. 7:2)
That same writer, Qoheleth, concluded that book by declaring,
Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil. (Eccl. 12:13-14)
Although our lives fly by, the way we live while we are here does have eternal ramifications. If ever there was incentive to take seriously one’s pursuit of the Good, this is it.