May 9, 2005
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The Calculus of Life
Here is my little calculus of life:
Imagine that life is a curve in space. The first derivative of this curve
is analogous to the change in you and in your environment from one time
in life to another. And, if you try to think of life in terms of some
“periods”, then a “period” in life is a line segment, a part of the
broken line discrete approximation of this “life curve”. A broken line
is obviously piecewise continuous. If you try to label your life with
some major
periods, such as infancy, childhood, teenage, etc, then your
broken line approximation will have only a few large line segments, and
the first derivative (the change) and the second derivative (the change
in amount of change) from one line segment (one life period) to another
are
likely to be large and very shockingly different, thus upsetting,
unsettling, and depressing you.What happens if you think of your life in terms of shorter periods? The
broken line approximation gains more line segments, and it appears
smoother overall – the derivatives from one line segment to another
become smaller and less different. The ride through life suddenly feels
less bumpy. All of this suggests that if one looks at life in terms of
shorter periods (years, months, weeks, days, or even seconds), then
life may not be so shocking after all. Now, it would be perfect if one
can look at life really as a smooth curve and not label it with
periods; however, it is highly unlikely to happen due to our stubborn
consciousness, which always tries to look at the clock and the calendar
only to realize how much time has elapsed since the last time we did
something stupid or tried to hurt ourselves. The best that one can do
is really to choose smaller and smaller intervals, until there are almost *cough* infinitely many *cough* small periods and the
consciousness is fooled to believe that there is no difference from one
period to another.Maybe there is a hidden message behind carpe diem:
“… Because you don’t want to think about more than one day at a time.”I’m not drunk, but I guess it makes no difference.
- SwordAngel
