This comic came along at just the right time for me: I often felt depressed and like I had squandered my opportunities in life, no hope for the future and only despair for the past.
Yes, the premise is a bit silly and flawed, so is the presentation, but then isn't life equally guilty of this?
I'm 25 and it holds true that my old self is dead: I no longer do the same things that I used to, they no longer bring me the same joy, instead I have moved on and started a new life. This me is going to be a teacher and when I am 32 I expect to die and move on to do something else. It doesn't have to be bigger or better, just different, and if it draws on my experience from this life or the past, then all the better.
At the moment, no. And me checking chatter to see your reply, honest to gawd tears flooded my eyes, and now I want to bawl. Thanks for that. =) p.s. Oh, and with the emotional floodgate that just opened up, minutes after your comment, I'm realizing I needed this, that bottling things up is bad, sometimes you just got to let yourself feel it. So thank you for THAT, sincerely.
I really like this comic. I spent close to ten years as a superfan of a band. I saw them all across the US and Canada and even went to Europe and Australia. But about a year ago I found my enthusiasm had waned for a variety of reasons. When I look back, it feels a bit odd. I knew there were some amazing times (my friends and I show up in the band's DVD), but I feel little attachment to that scene now. This comic does a good job of summarizing how I feel. That time wasn't wasted, it was spent becoming an expert in something. Now I've moved on to the next thing (hiking and camping).
That sounds like you had a fantastic time, and have some good memories and mementos from those years; definitely time not wasted. I enjoy hiking and camping but do not have the time or energy to be able to get away to do it, despite living right next to the fantastic Dartmoor; I will definitely be spending one of my lives camping, hiking and sailing (preferably at the same time!)
I'd love to try sailing! There are lakes in town here. I've lived here for fifteen years and only started kayaking last summer. It can be so peaceful out on the water. I'm not so interested in power boats, but sailing might be fun to try. Have you sailed? Is it hard to get into?
My granddad and uncles are all sailors and have worked with boats either in the military, commercially or building them. So naturally they built a fantastic wooden catamaran that could be collapsed so it would fit on a single trailer, it provided two berths to sit or sleep in and a canvas at the front that you could lay on and touch the water. I was fortunate enough to sail it fairly regularly during my childhood, both under motor and wind power. I'm sad that I never got to go across to France with him and his friend, but we would travel up and down river and have some great memories out of it: like getting stuck in the mud for hours because I followed their exact directions, leaving them to get muddy trying to free the boat whilst I managed to escape spotless. Or the time I was in charge of the dinghy and had to rescue a girl who had fallen off a wall into the water, I completely forgot about that until he reminded me a few months ago. There's some great people to meet out sailing, it really is like having a little house on the water and getting invited onto somebody else's boat for a cup of tea puts a fun twist on going over to the neighbours house. My wife and I would like to try out canal boats, maybe that could lead to hiking and camping throughout the country.
As the saying goes, "The best time to start was 30 years ago; the second best time is now."
Wow, I really feel refreshed and rejuvenated and motivated after reading this. Thank you for sharing it.
I think the lifetimes in the way that the comic presents them is a bundling of opportunity and your own sense of self: so you can spend your life writing, but as you make choices and move through life you will pass through different lifetimes / phases / eras / turning points where what you do changes how you see yourself. I think the main takeaway from the comic is to look at your past, present and future selves as wholly different individuals, each with their own personalities, careers, hobbies. What you do with that is up to you, either dig in or let go.
This might be a dangerous path: if you believe that in the future you'll be strong enough to quit this bad habit and start this good one, but do nothing in the present to achieve it, you're screwing yourself into a hole too small for you to fit.I think the main takeaway from the comic is to look at your past, present and future selves as wholly different individuals
I see it from a different perspective: To make that vision of future self come true, present self must instigate the changes necessary, one of which may be letting go of the past. The comic presenting these as lives I think makes it more definitive and yet helps you to detach from it somewhat. Consider it like this: a very close friend wants to become a carer, for the elderly or disabled; what would you as a person do to facilitate that? What actions must they take that you can directly help or influence? You have a few years to help this person so try and answer this for both the short and long term. Would you be willing or able to give up personal time to help them? What would happen if you didn't? If your friend needs to quit a bad habit, would you take the same steps as them to help support them?
The "friend" is your future self, your present self can choose to help your future self or not; to put it into a common frame of reference, if you'd help your friend to achieve something, what's stopping you from helping your future self do the same? The comic doesn't directly reference this, just simply saying "These are your lifetimes. USE THEM." so all of this is just my interpretation of it, but it seems logical to me that once you start thinking about your life as a series of lives (or different selves) you can plan accordingly. Feel free to disagree, if you interpret it differently then I would love to hear your perspective. :)