-
Giving Life Meaning
Have you thought about what you want
people to say about you after
you
’
re
gone? Can
you hear the voice saying,
“
He was a great
man.
”
Or
“
She really will
be missed.
”
What
else do they say?
One of the strangest
phenomena of life is to engage in a work that will
last long
after death.
Isn
’
t that a lot like
investing all your money so that future
generations
can bare interest on it?
Perhaps, yet if you look deep in your own heart,
you
’
ll find
something drives you to make this kind
of contribution---something drives every
human being to find a purpose that
lives on after death.
Do you hope to memorialize
your name? Have a name that is whispered with
reverent awe? Do you hope to have your
face carved upon 50 ft of granite rock? Is
the answer really that simple? Is the
purpose of lifetime contribution an ego-driven
desire for a mortal being to have an
immortal name or is it something more?
A child alive
today will die tomorrow. A baby that had the
potential to be the
next Einstein will
die from complication is at birth. The
circumstances of life are not
set in
stone. We are not all meant to live life through
to old age. We
’
ve grown to
perceive life3 as a full cycle with a
certain number of years in between. If all of
those
years aren’t lived out, it’s a
tragedy. A tragedy because a human’s potential was
never realized. A tragedy because a
spark was snuffed out before it ever became a
flame.
By virtue of inhabiting a
body we accept these risks. We expose our mortal
flesh
to the laws of the physical
environment around us. The trade off
isn
’
t so bad when
you think about it. The problem comes
when we construct mortal fantasies of what
life should be like. When life
doesn
’t conform to our fantasy we grow
upset,
frustrated, or depressed.
We
are alive; let us live. We have the ability to
experience; let us experience.
We have
the ability to learn; let us learn. The meaning of
life can be grasped in a
moment. A
moment so brief it often evades our perception.
What meaning stands behind the dramatic
unfolding of life? What single truth
can we grasp and hang onto for dear
life when all other truths around us seem to
fade with time?