Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

617 Words3 Pages
Pirsig proposes a novel idea in the first chapter of his book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, regarding the issue of values in relation to time. The narrator of the story has set out on a motorcycling road trip across America’s Northwest with his son, and two good friends, John and Sylvia. The narrator says, “We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with emphasis on ‘good’ rather than ‘time’ and when you make that shift in emphasis the whole approach changes” (5). I was struck by this statement and was propelled into reflection, asking myself ‘What makes quality time?’ How do I know as a human that I am making the most of my time and that at the end of my life I will have spent the time I’ve been given on this Earth in a manner that is ‘quality’? 1,440 minutes. That is the number of minutes we are afforded in a day. A 24-hour period to complete the day’s tasks, go to school, go to work, kiss our loved ones, and if we are eager enough, to make a difference in this world. Since the beginning of time, humanity has been on a desperate search for meaning and value and along with this a purposeful existence. Some would argue that a hedonistic approach to life, one that celebrates pleasure and offers fulfillment through whatever means makes an individual happy, should ultimately define a person. After all, you only live once. Others would say that there is no meaning to life; that our minutes are simply defined by the things that we accomplish, yet there is no apparent significance, because once we die, we are dead forever and cease to exist. But then what about our relationship to others, and the good deeds we do while we are alive? That most certainly must attain for us some sort of worth or even a good standing for whatever or whoever might greet us on the other side. Or we could hold to an existentialist view, which claims that our
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