525,600 Minutes

4 December 2007

525,600 minutes. How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?

So goes the song Seasons of Love from the Broadway show Rent. How will people remember someone once he’s passed away? In daylights? In sunsets? In midnights? In cups of coffee? In the bridges he’s burned or the way that he died? No. It’s measured in love. In seasons of love.

I believe that this is the secret to living a full life and, at the risk of sounding too cliche, that no amount of material things or professional achievements can take the place of healthy, loving, and genuinely caring relationships with family and friends.

2007 holds a lot of significance for me, son. It was the year when I left you and your mommy to go to school in Australia. It was also in this year when I met my good friends in Canberra who’ve managed to appease my homesickness and won a special place in my heart. More important though is that 2007 was the year I realized that the feeling of emptiness that I used to carry in my heart is the result of my looking at the wrong places for fulfillment. I’ve come to realize that it’s only when I’m surrounded by the people I love when I truly feel happy and it’s only when I know I’m making them happy when I feel a genuine sense of fulfillment.

The things that make me feel whole are really simple things that, when combined, make up a significant amount of my life:

Waking up beside you and your mom.
You calling me ‘deedee’.
Your mom giving me random hugs and kisses.
Watching you play basketball in the living room (in 2007, you refer to it as ‘beebeebol’).
Holding your mom’s hand.
Talking about anything and everything with your mom until the wee hours of the night.
Room 351, Unilodge@ANU (This was where I used to hangout with my friends when I was studying at ANU)
Going for a walk
Laughing

And the list goes on and on.

I hope you will realize this early on, son. That it’s healthy and genuine relationships that make life wonderful and that work is just a means to supporting a full life with family and friends (although it’s still important to strive for quality with your work). Here are the lyrics to the song I referred to above.

525,600 minutes

525,600 minutes so dear

525,600 minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets

In midnights, in cups of coffee

In inches, in miles

In laughter, in strife

In 525,600 minutes

How do you measure a year in the life?

How about love?

Measure in love

Seasons of love.

525,600 minutes

525,600 journeys to plan

525,600 minutes

How do you measure the life

Of a woman or a man?

In truth that she learned

Or in times that he cried

In bridges he burned

Or the way that she died

It’s time now to sing out

Though the story never ends

Let’s celebrate

Remember a year in the life of friends

Remember the love

Measure in love.