Shelf Life

Does everything about our lives have a shelf life? 

No, not the actual living part of it - that I get.  And I even get that in some cases roles in our lives - like family and children, for example - have a sort of shelf life that may eventually change into something else.  But for other things - interests, careers, even relationships - do they all have a shelf life, a "best by" date, a point beyond which they fail?

I ask this question in view of getting answer I didn't really want to get for somewhere between the 15th and 20th time in four years.  It is the kind of thing that, in my industry, you are supposed to look at - a sort of feedback loop that theoretically allows you to make improvements and corrections to a system to make it better.

But in the example of shelf life, there is no coming back from moldy food.  There is no correction you can make (well, possibly cutting off the mold and eating the rest, but that is hardly a recommended option) to bring it back.  It is is really not good for anything except disposal.

Are our careers like that too?  Our interests?  Even our relationships?  Do they all have shelf lives, expiration dates that somewhere appear on the cans of our existence that I somehow cannot see?

And what do you do with that?  It is not like a store, where one simply goes in and purchases another loaf of bread or piece of cheese.  It is something that it in many cases has taken years to get to a certain point and in some ways is irreplaceable - in at least time and energy, if not relationships.

Can one - is it even possible - to get a dating extension on any of these things, to find out from the manufacturer that they have tested it and have given it a longer date? And if so, who would one apply to for such information?

One can only hope, I suppose - rather than live with the vision of sitting in the pantry of one's life, looking at can after can coming up "Expired".