I hate saying no! I want to do far more than time allows. To find some peace, I’ve decided these six activities can wait for when I’m older, slower, and sorer.

• Bowling league
• Cribbage tournaments
• Watch “The Sopranos”, “The Wire”, and any number of series I’m sure are fantastic, yet eat tons of hours.
• Cross-country skiing
• Hunting/Fishing/Icefishing
• DJing

Yeah. Much as I’d like to do/try those activities now, I’ll save them for the coming decades. And really, if I never get to them, it wouldn’t torment my soul—”I sense a disturbing presence in this house…as if its former owner never finished ‘Game of Thrones’!”

It’s hardly as if I delay all gratification, in fact, partially thanks to the best TV show of all time. I may have solved the mystery of the “Time Enough at Last” episode of “The Twilight Zone”—there’s long been debate as to why the perfectly lovable Mr. Bemis should suffer the cruel fate of breaking his glasses the moment he, at last, gets endless time to read. Some feel the twist exemplifies the (alleged) misanthropy of the show’s creator-writer, Rod Serling. But I think it’s ultimately an allegory to warn against putting off what you love.

Right now my spare time goes to my sweet kids, wife, and friends, and to hobbies involving music, the written word, film, politics, history, sociology, and home improvement. These are too urgent or fleeting to not enjoy now, whereas the activities I listed above can wait. Only retirees should place a premium on time-killing amusement.

Just doing some mental maintenance—I just had a birthday, and visited my grandma at her retirement home, so I can’t help but size up the next (hopefully) two-thirds of my life.

What can you afford to put off? It sucks to say no, but I found it useful to define at least a few activities that can wait.

-Matty

PS. I just finished the manuscript for the book I ghostwrote, so I’m suddenly able to jump on here more often. See you ‘round!

PPS. Apparently “The Twilight Zone” is being rebooted. SACRILEGE.