The last time I saw my grandfather he had advanced cancer and knew he'd be dying soon. He was a little shy of 80. We had a good conversation, the kind I wish w

The last time I saw my grandfather he had advanced cancer and knew he'd be dying soon. He was a little shy of 80. We had a good conversation, the kind I wish we'd had more of, and part of what he said was basically "I just finally started to understand life, and now I'm dying." The post may express this stuff a bit clumsily but I think it has a kernel of truth. We fill our days with a lot of shit that doesn't matter. You can argue nothing matters because we're all going to die. But during our brief go-around on the planet there are things that are meaningful and things that aren't. Trying to focus more on the things that have meaning and less on things that aren't (or, worse, hurt others and make their lives worse) is a good idea. It's a pity we can't collectively get it together and agree that, for example, we could be focusing less on work and more on things that bring us joy. We could arrange society a lot differently but choose not to. And we're not better for it.