Knowing where to look

'A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich', a story written by Alexander Solnzhenityn deals with the extremely harsh existence and survival in a Soviet gulag. It set me thinking about 'time' and how we divide our time, the minutes,hours and days to identify the passage of this precious commodity, much of which we waste and fritter away.

The British government has this week provided its citizens with a 'ready reckoner' a way of calculating when an individual is supposed to die. The reason for this piece of macabre is the change in the pension act whereby one can now cash in your pension pot (the money you have saved for a pension over the years) on retirement day and not, as in the past purchase a retirement annuity.
The return on annuities has been scandalously poor and the pension industry is aghast that their sacred cash cow has been removed. You can still opt for the annuity route but some people will now have to either re-invest their money or perhaps go for broke and spend it whilst they have some breath in their bodies to enjoy the money. Hence the tool to work out how long you, as a member of an actuarial profile can expect to live.
The question of course is played out in black and white, you only have so much time left. For Ivan every day was a bitter struggle but one he accepted since life was all he had.  This of course presumes the importance he could attach to life given the almost impossible conditions he had to live in.
'Time on my hands' was seen as some sort of dissolute condition unfit for a healthy mind with our 'must keep busy attitude', a bygone from our Presbyterian past. But time can be filled in so many ways and not all have to be physically energetic. The part behind the eyes can be as energetic as the forearm and give as much back as the hike up a mountain path, its all a matter of preference.   
The situation, common where a partner is left behind, is for the person to pine away. The days without companionship are empty of content and they waste away in no time, but the creativity of the mind can launch new projects that confirm "life goes on" until it doesn't !!
What is it that we fill our lives with after we are handed the key to do with our time what we will, monetary considerations apart. That's a conundrum which is personal. It relies on ones ability to judge what one can do as a living, thinking person who is once more cast on ones own resources, just as we were in our early years. In those times we made it up, it was all new and we were confident enough to try anything. We need another dose of confidence to spark another project, in part our creativity can bear fruit on past experience. It might lack the thrill of the unknown but it will have the objectivity of knowing where to look ?