Gord Downie, the lead singer of the Canadian rock band Tragically Hip really lived up to the adage “the show must go” on this past week. He has terminal brain cancer. He performed what may be his last concert of his life last weekend.
I wasn’t there ”“ but the accounts I’ve read ”“ and a student telling me about her experience being in the stands ”“ confirm it was truly an in-the- moment, heightened, emotional, raw, alive experience.
I guess if we were faced with our own mortality while doing that which we love the most one last time ”“ it would be an intense experience. But also full of passion and grace and commitment and awe and wonder.
The way life is supposed to be lived. (Without the threat of our impending departure.)
How do we disengage from the daily autopilot most of us are hooked into and finally take charge of our lives and live that which we desire to live? How do we start creating for ourselves and stop apologizing for simply being the beautiful creatures we are? How do we wake up to the things we’ve been postponing forever (thinking we have time) and finally do them?
Since the earth came into existence some 4.5 billion years ago ”“ you are the only you ever created. From eons ago until this earth expires or our galaxy collapses into a black hole ”“ there will never be another you. Ever.
Do you get that?
Carl Sagan computed that in relation to the history of the planet ”“ human history would only be the scale of the size of your hand. And each of our personal time here (the general life span for most human beings) on earth would be about ¼ of a second.
The time it took you to read that sentence is longer than our time here in relation to the historical context of billions of years.
I know when we’re living our lives it feels like we have forever. We don’t.
Blink your eye right now. That took about 1/3 of a second. That’s longer than our time here.
So how do we make it matter?
Mr. Downie’s form of brain cancer is known as glioblastoma. Many patients with this type of tumor undergo an “awake” (interesting name for it) craniotomy ”“ where the surgeon periodically interacts with the patient ”“ asking the patient questions ”“ to ensure he’s not getting too close to the tissue of the brain that’s responsible for speech or motor function.
These brain surgeries are made possible because of experiments showing that the brain regulates movement ¼ of a second before a person becomes aware of the intent to do something. So, for example, the brain activates an impulse before we have the awareness of the intent to do that action. Like, move our finger, let’s say.
So, apparently, ¼ of a second is longer than we think. If the brain can send an intent which creates a moment of awareness and then results in action, surely we can start doing that more mindfully in our own lives.
We can use that fraction of a second to make different choices. To breathe through a moment. To become aware before we react out of habit or emotion. To slow down and be more here. To listen. To integrate and process rather than blame and condemn. To look someone in the eyes and smile.
In doing so, we might discover our allotted ¼ of a second is just the right amount of time to make our lives matter after all.