Jing Yidan passed away last month, and two weeks ago, Liu Huan passed away.
There was a wave of lamenting online: they were gone too soon.
But if you think about it, at most we’re surprised for a few minutes, and then everything goes on as usual and we return to our own lives. At least that’s how it is for me. I suddenly think, “Wow, they were still so young,” and then I go right back to my life as usual.
And my surprise has more to do with a basic fact: at this age, life becomes more precious—or, put another way, it can end at any moment.
I’m thinking about myself, not Jing Yidan as a person. Our lives never crossed; she was just someone whose name I knew.
So, online and in real life, there are plenty of people we pay far too much attention to, and we only have so much energy. Turning our attention back to ourselves, exploring who we are, caring for our families and for the people who are truly worth connecting with—these are all good ways to make our own lives feel longer. If you don’t spend your time on yourself, or on the people who deserve your attention, you’re wasting your life.
There was a wave of lamenting online: they were gone too soon.
But if you think about it, at most we’re surprised for a few minutes, and then everything goes on as usual and we return to our own lives. At least that’s how it is for me. I suddenly think, “Wow, they were still so young,” and then I go right back to my life as usual.
And my surprise has more to do with a basic fact: at this age, life becomes more precious—or, put another way, it can end at any moment.
I’m thinking about myself, not Jing Yidan as a person. Our lives never crossed; she was just someone whose name I knew.
So, online and in real life, there are plenty of people we pay far too much attention to, and we only have so much energy. Turning our attention back to ourselves, exploring who we are, caring for our families and for the people who are truly worth connecting with—these are all good ways to make our own lives feel longer. If you don’t spend your time on yourself, or on the people who deserve your attention, you’re wasting your life.