Shelf Life and Shelling Notions about Life

Everything has a shelf life and once it crosses that barrier it is very difficult to sustain in the normal world because something else will either replace it soon enough or it is not suitable to serve its intended purpose. Generally, we see that word being tossed around the retail industry, but that is applicable to everything, but the one caveat is that we cannot label it on everything. Well, what does that have to do with life at all? One benefit would be to not consume things that are expired—not just food but outdated beliefs. But, life is far more complex than that retail jargon. 

If we were given a pen and asked to describe ourselves in a few words, how many of us can do it instantaneously? Not too many of us and that is completely fine and normal. No, this isn’t an issue about your self-awareness. The fascinating thing is people around us, all of them have a different version of us in their heads and that keeps changing with every interaction they have with us. We ourselves have a version of us in our head and that keeps changing with every choice we make and that is exactly what life is. There is no true definition of a person until they pass away. Sure, there might exist character-defining moments in life, but alas, even they have a shelf life in people’s heads. So, this constant stress about lasting impressions, constant scrutiny and judgment—all of these exist in our heads and do not add up to improving our life. Even if you are told that you are only going to live another 10 minutes, stop worrying about what all judgments you have faced and start focusing on how you want to be remembered.  

We can talk a lot about life and that will never make us masters in living it properly but what we can do at the least is to gain some insight to differentiate our good and bad choices because what are humans good for if not for constant evolution, we are just another herd of talking apes prone to jealousy, anguish and greed. Life is all about embracing growth and discarding the things that are of no use to us in making us a better human, just like we discard the ones that are beyond their shelf life. It is easier said than done because nobody has an idea to unbiasedly segregate the ones which are making us better and bitter until faced a situation where we are regretting our actions genuinely. That is exactly why our ordeals teach us more than what we are taught after paying for a degree. It is neither our duty or possible to police ourselves, at every step of our lives, but it is surely a healthy habit to infuse a good enough moral compass within ourselves to reduce the untimely regrets we have to face in the future. I say untimely because we can only plan and pray for a good day but not implement and execute it—unknown circumstances linger around our necks and might choke us at any crucial moment. 

There cannot be any closing statements to try to understand life. We are all going to sprout newer perspectives on each other anyway, so, why not make it a bit more healthy, unbiased and warm. The world is already suffering from polarizing weather conditions due to our extreme  actions. Let us at least enjoy calm skies in our headspace when a lot of people aren’t educated enough to read the shelf life of our planet exponentially decreasing by the day. Growth begins within—and maybe, that’s the first step to healing the world too.