Eyes on the Ball

November 30th, 2022

One of the most impossible and necessary human properties we can hold is the ability to live in and appreciate any given moment.

My friend Steven and I are obsessed with a television show called Westworld. This year, for its fourth season, we even found time to get together every few weeks to watch several episodes in his basement.

Early on, the creators of Westworld shared that they had a plan to tell a story over five seasons. Steve and I have actively participated in the storytelling, trying to figure out what it’s all going to mean when we finally reach the fifth and final arc.

A few days after season four ended, Westworld was canceled.

What we assumed we were watching was a season finale, but what we were actually watching was a series finale.

And ain’t that life.

We never know our lasts until it’s abruptly, and unceremoniously, over.

There are songs you love, books you plan on rereading, films you want to see again on a big screen, conversations with important people in your life, that you will never experience again.

You think you will, but I have to be the one to tell you: you won’t.

Which makes every moment you have essentially your last one.

I’ll admit, this line of thought sometimes leaves me feeling paralyzed; because anything I choose should be important, could be my last choice, I have to choose correctly, right?

I do. Of course I do. And so I do.

I find that when I think about what’s truly important to me, the nonessential parts of my life become colorless, devoid of what it is to live and to have life.

It’s how I choose what to read, what to watch, what to do, and what I’m going to write next.

It makes it easier to forgive in the moment. To remember to give or receive a hug in the moment. To say the thing I need to say in the moment.

And as soon as I stop living in the moment, I stop living, really, at all.

Yesterday, I heard someone say that all we should focus on is the ball in play, and as far as sports metaphors go, that one’s pretty good.

It’s not about winning or losing.

It’s about living the game you’re playing right now, and playing it like it’ll be the last thing you ever do.