What makes life worth living? It’s an optional question I asked twelve people who, along with me, are hosting the 2013 Blogging from A to Z Challenge.
The question stemmed from wanting to know if men and women see value in their lives through external forces, internal elements, artificial sources of material or a combination of them all. I also wondered if the answers that followed would help me find one or at the very least -- narrow down a place to identify it since I’ve been looking for an answer to this question for quite some time. After going out of my mind between January and now, trying to pick a theme for the A to Z Challenge (I had one already planned for months and then changed my mind several times), I still came up empty.
So, I decided that the majority of my posts in April will be focused around reflections and perspectives on the very question that has occupied my attention for so long. Fortunately for me, I recently had a brief epiphany that just might be the answer: A New Day.
New days bring with them a chance for new beginnings and that alone with what makes live worth living. Each new day brings with it a fresh start and second, (or third, fourth, fifth, twentieth, seventieth and so on) chances to obtain or experience or feel more, less or the same of what you did yesterday.
A chance…
- To make amends where needed.
- To honor the memory of our fellow man and woman whose death is not in vein – especially the brave ones, especially the innovators, especially the inspiring ones, especially the ones who led by example and especially those who we consider heroes.
- To re-start again or continue where we left off.
- To learn by doing and do things differently or better this time around, if necessary.
What makes life worth living is being able to get back up again when you fall without a safety net. It’s the ability to pick up the pieces after they crumble, and then build a new puzzle. It’s a chance to even find new pieces of the puzzle, if the ones you already had before are gone or no longer available. It’s an opportunity to carve out a new path if the one you were on yesterday was not working. It is your do-over moment; complete with yet another 24 hours to rebuild, rejuvenate or refine the very key to a life well lived – based on whatever you consider a life well lived to be.
We wait for holidays and special occasions to live it up – experience joy, peace, happiness, freedom or a renewed sense of self: Birthdays to celebrate life, New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day to reflect and transform, etc. but none of us are certain if we’re going to live to execute our plans for these occasions.
All who awake each morning on this earth have the same 24 hours to use as we see fit. Our choices are what make all the difference in these 24 hours that we have in common. Each new day brings with it a choice to waste your time being idle or to spend your time being productive – once your time is up, it’s over. One can look at this in the perspective of losing or running out of time but I know that is a self-destructive mindset to be in. On the contrary, I think that even if its 11:59pm, you still have 60 seconds to relax and rest or laugh and cheer. Either way, it’s your call – better to be in peace or filled with joy than in anger and discomfort.
Since the only thing guaranteed in life is death, I believe it would be beneficial for us to make the most of whatever time we’re given – in each day that we receive – by thinking and behaving in accordance with the things that we deem as being worth our next breath. Here is the kicker, however, that tends to stop us dead in our tracks: Life is Hard.
It is not easy to live and some of us are often in a state of constant battle. We’re at war with other people; we’re at war with ourselves, we’re at war with policies and beliefs -- and many times, we don’t even know who or what we’re at war with nor do we know why we’re at war at all. The result is a destruction of our own will to triumph and rise above when things don’t go as planned. Victory is not won in a life that has no value. Instead, it is made possible by having the balls to navigate through this madness and find a place where you can be the change and truth you want to see in the world. It’s about having (or at least seeking, if you don’t) courage under fire.
When my 26 observations about the value of life and all its inner battles from A to Z are introduced in April, I hope they reflect an inspiration from which I’ve now become able to put it altogether – a 20th Century Fox movie about an Army Lt. Colonel, played by Denzel Washington, who faces his own demons when investigating whether a Captain, played by Meg Ryan, deserves the Medal of Honor for being killed in combat.
Through stories about what happened and didn’t happen in their war zone, the characters in this mystery thriller are given opportunities to make amends and rewrite history.
When given a new day, some stuck to their guns no matter what damage it cost them, while others – particularly Washington’s and Ryan’s characters – used their time to make things right (whether it be for the benefit of themselves or that of a fellow human being) when things were going so wrong.
What do YOU think makes life worth living? Are YOU participating in the A to Z Challenge?
I want to send a special shout out to Mina Lobo at Some Dark Romantic and David Macaulay at Brits in the USA for encouraging A to Z Challenge participants to reveal their themes before April arrives.