Life is always a game of two parts. There's the part you've lived through, leading up to now, and then there's the part you have yet to live through. To start with the second part is longer than the first part. You've experienced a bit of life, but there's so much more yet to come. Later on the first part is longer than the second part. You've experienced most of life, and there's not so much still to go. Only once is the first part equal in length to the second part, and you never know precisely when that moment occurs at the time. Official UK statistics suggest that, for the average UK male born 42 years ago, this moment occurs just before your 42nd birthday. Damn.
not born yet
LI
FE
dead
But human existence continues beyond the two extremes of your life. Time divides up into three sections. There's the bit before you were born - the bit you never experienced but can always find out about. Then there's your alloted life span - the bit you've already experienced plus the bit you have yet to experience. And then there's the bit after you die - the bit you will never experience and will never find out about. Which is a shame. You may discover what your great great great grandmother got up to, but you can never know how your great great great great grandchildren will turn out.
not born yet
dead
But time is vast beyond comprehension in comparison to our lifespan. Billions of years had passed before the moment we breathed our first, and billions more will pass after we've gasped our last. Our lives are wholly insignificant on a universal scale, nothing more than a heartbeat in a vast expanse of forever. You may think that it's a long time until the weekend begins, whereas that's absolutely no time at all when compared to eternity. It's far too easy to be oblivious of the extended past and to completely ignore the longer term future.
not born yet
d
But what if that longer term future turns out to be much shorter than we imagine? It might well be. Human society is geared up to live for today rather than make sacrifices for our descendants. Our oil supplies might run out before the century is over, but we'd still rather devour the lot rather than abandon our wasteful consumer lifestyles. Nuclear power might bring us a short term energy solution, but we'll happily leave scores of future generations to mop up the mess. Global warming might eventually make our planet uninhabitable, but why bother attempting to halt it when we'll not be around to notice? We're too busy squandering the world's resources to care about sharing them with those who follow us. If we're not careful, we may be the last generation to imagine that humanity has a future. Maybe the period after our deaths will be measured in years, not billions of years. Maybe our lifetime, right now, is as good as it gets.
not born yet
dead
But I like to think that the future could be rather brighter. There may be a golden age ahead, complete with hovercars, interstellar travel and eternal harmony. It's just possible that humanity might not make a complete mess of things, so long as we can all stop thinking only about 'now' and start concentrating a bit more on 'later'. We need to face up to the consequences of our wastefulness and become considerably less selfish on a global scale. Those yet to be born will surely thank us for it. Even if we can never live long enough to discover how everything turns out.
