Why Life?
From the first realisation of the existence of an internal Self to the last hollow breath as a dying human being, Man forever asks his or herself "Why? Why am I alive? What does this mean? Why am I here?" There have been many different answers to these questions throughout history. Some have felt the need to create an ultimate rule set for life in the form of a god or gods or even a set of unbreakable rules to describe the undescribable journey that they find themselves on. Mostly these reek of illusion and artificiality and completely miss the point. Life has no boundaries or ultimate purpose. In all actuality there has never been and never will be a single answer to any of the original questions, but contrary to a lot of beliefs, there does not in fact need to be. Life is one endless set of questions with answers that lead to another set of questions and so on. There is however, some underlying reasons, or perhaps you could say motivations for ignoring what is in all reality a barren death march towards inevitable death.
We live in an irrational universe, where logic fails to break very far into the heart of reality, where suffering is a given and Death is far from an unknown stranger. In all certainty, to an uninterested outsider Life would be a burden, a long winding road that leads further and further into the unknown depths of discomfort and torture. To the weak of mind perhaps this is all life ever can be, for if we were to tell ourselves anything but otherwise we could easily fall into the illusion of being thrown into a perilious, unpleasurable existence where nothing was worthwhile.
In every person that the author has ever met that enjoyed life there has been a certain fire that has burned, a certain passion for life that is fuelled by taking the hardest route of all; to live without the miserable comfort that means merely accepting Death and the apparent futility of Life. In every person who truly loves and adores life you will find a burning insistance for conflict, for adventure, for suffering, for chaos, for the unexpected, all of this keeps them ticking, keeps them living, keeps them guessing and ultimately for them makes life worth living because they enjoy its wonderous mystery – they could not live in a perfect utopian world because it would be dull and comfortable, there would be no challenge.
How could they celebrate the conquering of their greatest fears, the winning of a spiritual battle against all odds when in a perfect world none of this would even exist in the first place? These people were born for battle, their heart beats with every passing moment of the struggle that is life, it could not be any other way. In the back of their minds they know that they will die, they know that they will be hurt, they know that failure is possible, but these things are always secondary to their constant search for meaning, that is for something to help them enjoy their lives, something to dream of and something to strive towards.
The ultimate beauty that life rests on is choice. The endless lack of any inherent meaning in life ironically creates the chance for endless possibility. Life is ultimately about how you approach its struggles, between pain and pleasure, yes and no, fear and admiration, present and past, and all those answers that never quite come. It is worth living because it is what it is, its struggles give you the chance to be your dreams today in a future tomorrow.
by Simon Barnes
August 27, 2007
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