Time or money?

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Another WhatsApp group with another PSA (public service announcement). A group of guys who are affluent enough to spare their time to reminisce their childhood. They need not see the need to chase their elusive dream anymore as that has become a reality. Everybody is courteous and wish each other well. Each reminds another to mind their time spent. They tell each other that money can be found but sadly any lost time is gone forever. No amount of money can buy time. Conversely, they rationalise that money can be made in no time.

This kind of talk permeated through a dinner party at a relative's house recently. The elder of the clan was keen to remind everyone of the need to stay focused in life. Again, spend time with loved ones, do not forgo time on Earth on chasing for wealth, etcetera. Health is wealth, money cannot buy love, time is precious blah blah.

My mind went overdrive. I was between being 'speaking my piece' and 'holding the peace'; between being a wet blanket and maintaining status quo; between making life easy as possible as most people want and playing devil's advocate. The worse part took the upper hand of me.

I related to them a middle-aged couple for whom I had to stop at a zebra-crossing. They were in shabby clothes, obviously dishevelled, dragging their probably arthritic and neglected lower limbs in a sorry state before the light turned red. I pondered upon their predicament and built my own narrative around the possibility of the present state of affair. It could be far from the truth but it is not wrong for the mind to wonder.

They could be one who thought life is a reward from our good deeds from previous lives for us to savour and indulge. Why worry about tomorrow when we do not have a clue what today may bring us? What if we are not there to enjoy tomorrow? God forbid, what if there is no tomorrow?

So, they enjoy their existence on earth without a care for the future. The trees and every living being survive the day. Mother Nature gives it all to us.

But Mother Nature had indeed had other plans for them. If their lives had been short, things have been just nice. Short and sweet. They were, however, given the curse of longevity. The long years of pains, aches, disappointments, loss of loved one, loss of earning capacity and the brunt of maintaining a body which needed regular maintenance.  The scourge of rejection by the society which no longer considered them productive and the loved one who stopped loving them when they ate into their family budget add on their burden.

For these people, it is not time that they need but money. It is nicer to travel in an air-conditioned chauffeur-driven automobile than to drag their sorry states from point A to point B.