Little wisdom in ‘waiting to live’

THE EDITOR: Most people are familiar with the phrase “waiting to die,” but what has been occupying my thoughts increasingly over the past few years is the phrase “waiting to live.”

I suppose I have been very fortunate to have had experiences that have led to me to think along these lines. When I was six I learned the important lesson that one should not wait to live. This is a concept that probably comes to most persons later in life. My parents had paid a visit to New York and had brought home a delightful doll’s house that could be assembled on a table. The sides of the boxes were painted with doors and windows and the furniture was supplied to set up this doll’s house. Like many parents of those days, however, my parents taught their daughters to play with the toys but also to care for them. When the children had finished playing, the toys would be carefully put away. While that was a valuable tenet in its way, it was also very often a source of great frustration.

So, the doll’s house was taken down on a few occasions and my sister and I enjoyed it for a while. But then we had to dismantle it and pack it away once more. As I recall, we may have played with this set on five or six occasions, maybe even fewer. After a few months, the town in which we lived caught afire. The fire spread rapidly and our beautiful doll’s house was lost. I never forgot that experience and I imagine I must have harboured some resentment at the fact that we had enjoyed it so little. In more recent times I have had a few of my friends say to me, “When I have done this I will be able to do that,” or “When I have the time I shall do such and such.”

My view is that this can be taken to extremes. I have the firm conviction, borne out all the more by recent global events, that life does not wait for one thing to happen before another “kicks in.” Waiting to “live” will prevent someone from doing much that he really wants to achieve. I have found it more satisfying to cram as much into a day, a week, a month, as one can. This may not appeal to everyone, and I do not expect it to, but I would never write my friends, or attend some classes, or visit some places, if I did not squeeze in the time. If I wait too long, the opportunity will surely be lost!

CYNTHIA M BIRCH
Port-of-Spain