I see the news every day and listen to conversations people have about just about anything. Most of the time, the tone is angry, confrontational, and divisive. One side is pitted against another, one generation against another, one color against another, one race against another, one lifestyle against another, and so on. I don’t have time to be that angry. I’ve learned I don’t want to waste another minute on anger. Who needs it? It takes your time, does nothing to make the world better, and blows away years in discontent.
The older I get, the more I realize I wasted far too long in anger. Years I could have been enjoying life were lost in the constant cacophony of viciousness we see every day on television. Social media, what should have been a tool to bring people together, has done the exact opposite and polarized the world. I don’t want to spend time stewing and venting. I don’t know what anyone does.
Superman Syndrome
The young don’t seem to realize yet that life is a gift, and you just don’t know when your tokens expire or will be revoked. Maybe it’s intentionally designed this way. Maybe not. I do know one thing: the older you get, the more you look back at how you could have lived, what you could have done, and the happiness you could have experienced, and you realize you threw it out the window over useless antagonism.
If you have any years behind you, as I do, you will see that every second of indignation and hostility changed nothing. Okay, maybe not nothing. It made the world more hostile, more explosive, and more divided. That is all it did.
The More Things Change…
Nothing has changed, if we get down to it. Crime and vast corruption still exist; only the players have changed. Political warfare and corruption haven’t changed either; only the side in the lead has. It flips and flops all the time, and in the end, both sides are the same flavor of putrid vomit. Who or what does that benefit? No one.
People seem to think that being on the winning side restores balance, but they lie to themselves. The winners, or the winning side, are always corrupted and, in the end, fail to unify arguments or fix wrongs. Then the tables turn, and the same happens when the other team wins. Power attained, corruption finds a seat at the table, and then everyone at the dinner table eats the same bile.
Balance comes from the constant changing of the guard. No single entity should ever be in power too long, because then you breed irreversible tyranny. And yet the malignancy drones on. Poison begets poison, venom begets venom, and intolerance begets intolerance.
Humanity has a very big problem. It is reactive, not proactive. It does not contemplate and analyze before acting, and we all pay for the wake it leaves. The years go on this way, decade after decade, and when you look back, your life has passed you by, and all you have to show for it is gray hair, anxiety, mental illness, poor coping skills, or poor people skills: a life wasted.
Confronted by Reality
This year, I’ve noticed that life is shorter than we think. I learned this week that an old friend had passed away at a young age. He had actually died two years ago. Imagine a young, vibrant, and strong man dying before he reached old age. I know it happens, but knowing it and experiencing it are different.
I looked at his life and then at mine. I am older, but how long do I have? There is no telling. Did he go through life thinking he would die young? Did he assume he had many more things to do or enjoy? Or did he assume he had more time?
I then looked at my own life. Have I wasted my years? Yes, some. Have I done everything I wanted to do, or at least tried? No, not everything. Have I enjoyed every moment of life and valued all its gifts? No.
This is when I began to think about how we waste so many years in anger. It doesn’t matter what the enmity is about or whom it’s directed at. It only matters that you’ve wasted time on it. When we are young, we only look at the here and now. We don’t conceive that life may be cut short. Maybe a person is not meant to live to a ripe old age.
Young people think there is always time. They believe they have their whole lives ahead of them. No lie is greater than this. You just don’t know how long you get to try and try again, to do the things you dream of, or to apologize for a wrong you committed. There are no guarantees.
I met my friend who passed away when we were teens. I never thought I would lose him to a disease. I thought the people I knew would live parallel lives, age together, until the time came when we would all begin to pass on. I lied to myself.
I thought there would always be a tomorrow to call and catch up, a next year or next decade. I thought about how many times I engaged in the futility of an argument, a political fight, or an angry tirade, and realized that, in all those wasted moments, I could have been talking to people I loved and enjoyed spending time with. I wasted them on people and things that wouldn’t change, no matter what my argument was. The only thing that changed was who was at the helm of the sinking ship.
Falsehoods
When we are young, we never think about that. It’s all about today, here, and now. One day, these younger generations will be older, like me, and come to see that they blew away precious moments on useless pursuits. They will look at life and see that nothing has changed except them. They will be more jaded, perhaps more angry, or maybe callous. That is the only thing that changes, really, because in the end you cannot change a single thing about anyone else. You can only change yourself.
I stopped watching the daily bloodthirsty news on television years ago. I try not to follow what’s going on in this world grounded in hate. I may not be up to date or in this fight, but I am far happier than those I witness who are. I just can’t spend my days angry because one side doesn’t do what I want, or because I want everything to be on my side. I can’t spend my tokens on unpleasantness when so much out there can bring me joy.
A Choice
I choose to be happier. I just don’t want to live the rest of my life in anger and hostility. There is no time for it. The years behind me far outnumber the ones ahead. At this age, I won’t waste another second on someone else’s petty bickering. People often think they have time to do things, enjoy things, or change themselves later. Some believe they have all the time in the world. Some don’t or won’t have that luxury.
I can’t be bothered with ferocious venom. Time is always short, and I am mortal. Anger is for the young. They think they have forever and are invincible. Have at it. I’ll live happily in peace.
(Published by No Time On Medium, 2026)
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