living like a fool

Sometimes it honestly feels like the day, the week, the month are passing by at such an incredible speed that it is a struggle to breathe. We cram pack our lives so full trying not to leave a single experience out that sometimes it seems that the entire point is being missed. What is life if it is lived in such a way that there is never time to just sit back and relax? Why is it so taboo to just want to take a deep breathe and reflect or even just let our minds and bodies rest? I don't get it. Sure, we only have so long to live - our days are numbered yet we never know if today or the next day is going to be our last. Therefore we get in this full out carpe diem mindset and do every conceivable thing that pops into our minds, usually without thinking it through. Or do we think it through just enough to recognize that this may not be the brightest idea and then reason that we may never get the chance again so we might as well go through with it. How foolish can we be? Lao Tzu said, "A foolish man is always doing, Yet much remains to be done." Though the philosopher lived way before our time his logic is still completely applicable. People act like fools filling their days with "exciting" and usually pointless activities simply because they have an appearance to keep up to themselves or others, but what are the consequences? Drunk driving accidents, petty crime, mistakes that can lead to a lifetime of regret, among a plethora of other possibilities. Was Lao saying it's bad to be busy and constantly entertained - not really in my opinion. It isn't about whether you are trying to be part of something during day to day life to keep it from getting droll and overly predictable, it is about living for something more than hedonism. It's about at the end of the day feeling like life has meaning. Whether the day was spent doing as much activity as a vegetable does while hanging out with a friend or living it up at a party, how do you feel about yourself at the end of the day? Are you fulfilled? Can you honestly say that if today was your last day on earth you could look back on it and say that it was a day well spent? Most of the time we can't. And it's generally because we are so caught up in appearances or personal pleasure to just freeze and think about it. There's definitely nothing wrong with lazing a day away with a friend just for the quality time. Partying every night till 5am is not necessarily wrong either. But is that all you live for? I can longer be content just going through the motions of life not when there is so much to be done. I'm not saying let's drop what we're doing and go take on global warming (though it would be nice to end that problem) but simply that we should each take a break every now and then to chill and reflect. So, I am basically intertwining a couple of ideas which is probably not clear to anyone but myself. The best clarification that I can offer to myself and anyone who bothers to read this is this: one - if you are always living in the fast lane without ever slowing down you're either going to run out of gas faster than you might expect or you're going to crash and crash with a high impact on yourself and probably others too; two - does your life mean something, to yourself and to others? Actions speak louder than words, don't say you stand for something and yet go about life in such a way that strangers could never tell your purpose. We're all guilty of stagnancy in life and thank God we all still have the chance to break out of it before we just become like day-old bread that is destined for the trashcan, repulsive to ourselves and others because we let ourselves get stale.