You are careening through life at a breakneck speed and there is really not a whole lot you can do about the actual passage of time unless one of those gizmos on Ebay really is a time machine.  However, what would life be like if at the end of it all, you could only remember three or four days?  The life worth living is an examined life, because the unexamined one is not worth living we are told.  However, the life worth remembering is a life full of quirks and misadventures.  You remember the things that happen to you that are out of the ordinary, and you are correct in assessing this sentence as one of my worst.  Regardless, you have to put some thought into this.

I need to examine my Life life and determine the qualities of memorable days.  I remember driving across a long bridge at daylight listening to the first words of Snow Falling on Cedars through my car stereo and the coldness held at bay by the windows, daybreak illuminating factory smoke beside the river, a streetlight flickering.  That was one day, and at the time, I may not have known that I would remember it.  I remember when my son was born, our doctor passed out hitting her head on the corner of the tray of instruments sending them falling in slow motion glinting in strange light, the anguish on the nurse’s face, the alarms and urgency in motion.  I remember driving through moonlight, returning from a hunting trip, lazily rounding a curve as my uncle told me how his father had seen three bobcats at once while hunting in distant lands, and in the road sleeping were three bobcats.  I remember walking two miles to the top of an overlook to watch the sun set with two friends, and walking the entire way back without light, worrying that snakes were poised to ricochet off my ankles, crossing a dry creek, flashing a light on a key chain and seeing bare ankles of a couple lying beside the trail, awkward words, then silence.  I remember driving down a foreign road with friends, coming over the crest of a predictable hill only to find a field populated with the dry heads of dry sunflowers with a crow perched on the highest one.

All of these memories have one thing in common, which is that they happened with other people, except for the Snow Falling on Cedars moment.  We establish meaning through interaction with others, so if you want to create a Life out of this life, then you need to do that with other people.  I was also completely passive and observant in all of these, even the baby being born episode because I was beside myself throughout the entire thing.  I was also not really expecting any of these things to happen, but I would say that I was open to them happening.
I shall try an experiment this week in manufacturing memories.  I will not do that by financing a trip to Cancun laced with tequila, but rather by doing something completely out of the ordinary.  I will walk mountain trails with a friend that I have not walked.  I will try foods that I have not tried.  I will talk about things that I do not normally talk about.  I will drive down roads that I have never seen.  I will learn things that I did not know.

“Polyphasic sleep involves taking multiple short sleep periods throughout the day instead of getting all your sleep in one long chunk. A popular form of polyphasic sleep, the Uberman sleep schedule, suggests that you sleep 20-30 minutes six times per day, with equally spaced naps every 4 hours around the clock. This means you’re only sleeping 2-3 hours per day. I’d previously heard of polyphasic sleep, but until now I hadn’t come across practical schedules that people seem to be reporting interesting results with.”

“RU SIRIUS: Let’s start off talking about immortality. And let’s talk about it personally. Do you want to live forever?

MICHAEL ANISSIMOV: Oh, absolutely! For sure!

RU: Why?

MA: Because I have at least a thousand years of plans already. And in those thousand years, I’ll probably make another thousand years of plans, and I don’t see any end to that cycle.”

If you could do one good thing for yourself today, it would be to get lost. We sleep through our lives, engrossed in meaningless ritual to the point of numb hypnosis by sheer mundanity. However, if you turn left at red light 14 instead of going straight, as you normally do, and continue on strange roads until you are completely sure you do not know where you are, then you may find yourself. Once upon a time, I had an incredibly intimidating paper due as a graduate student. I was at the end of my rope having done none of it with 30 minutes left before class. Other graduate students were comforting and let me know that they would see me in class in just a few minutes, which seemed like a sadistic voyeurism since they knew that I did not have the paper completed. I smiled, rode down the elevator with them, paused and acted like I forgot something. As soon as they walked away, I got my car keys, walked to the parking garage, and drove out of the city. I cannot begin to describe the utter nirvana of seeing that urban scape shrink in my rear view mirror that day.

Thoreau extolled the virtues of a good walk, and we must concur with that sentiment. However, we can no longer walk far enough to find unfamiliar territory but we can drive. Today, right after you read this, do nothing out of the ordinary right now but go to work, and on your way, get lost. That is what you have to do. If you plan on getting lost, you are not lost. You have to act as though, or believe as though your day is going to be just like yesterday and not knowing whether or not you can actually do it, do it. Find something heavenly to listen to, and drive slow. You are not running away, but simply sliding into the unknown. Purposely find back roads and avoid the interstate at all costs. When you stop to eat, make sure you have never heard of the place.

Sit with strangers and sip coffee with them. Find a place to play chess and watch the hours melt away. As you drive, breath slowly and drink green tea. Turn the cell phone off and stay away from talk radio. Stop to take in the view, meditate and open up. That last part is tough, but let your mind leave the conventions, worries and walls that normally confine it and let your thoughts dissipate. If you find that your environment is starting to look familiar, turn the other way. Find open spaces and empty places.
I will not say how you will know that it is time to come home, but you will know and when you do, do not regret it for a second. The world is yours for a breath’s time and it is lost in the distortion of living day to day. You will never appreciate it until you can find it new and strange again. When you feel your life collapsing again under corporate stress, parenthood, or tedium, do it again.