Some time ago, I had made a reading list of about twenty or so books. Like most reading lists I’ve made, it was more ambitious than I could actually accomplish. In reality, I only got through a few of the books before I took a break from reading. Then I started to write, and the unread books on the list remained unread.
Now, when I see those unread books on the bookshelf at the store, library, or online, they don’t appeal to me as they once did. There was a shelf life to them–a window of time when I was open to reading them, learning from them. Now that years had past, they no longer pique my interest.
That’s how most things are in life. Any wish list we had two, three, or ten years ago, will seem outdated by today’s standard, even unnecessary. The things we wanted to buy, the clothes we wanted to wear, the books we wanted to read–they all have a momentary significance to us.
Of course, not everything has a short shelf life. Maybe the places we wanted to travel to are still on our wish list. Long term goals still remain such as buying a new car, owning our own place, learning new skills, etc.
But with every passing year, technology changes, new products are released, property value changes, and so do our values to varying degrees. In a way, everything has a shelf life.
Fallton Havenstonne 