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"Life, and living"

There are something approaching 6 billion people on this planet. Of those, none can say with absolute clarity and accuracy where we came from, what we're doing here, and what makes us so different from the millions upon millions of other forms of life that can be found all around us on this planet.

Of course, some people have what they believe to be the answer, be it religion, science, unproven or untested theory, or even complete nonchalance. We live our lives, and at some point often look for a reason as to why we're living them. For some greater purpose? As the love toys of some greater being? As chance in nature's great plan of selection? Or perhaps, as many would say, the ultimate of life is simply to enjoy it, and that's all we're here for.

Now there's a great thought indeed! That we are here simply to enjoy ourselves, and have the best life we can carve out for ourselves. Truly then, our capacity for joy, love and happiness is without boundaries. Unfortunately not. For if we are here to enjoy ourselves, why do so many of us fail so miserably in so simple a task? Hundreds of millions of people the world over are unhappy. Many to the point where the ultimate moments of their life are spent not enjoying life, but instead taking it away from themselves because they cannot bear to live with the burden of living.

It's tragedy enough that some people cannot survive the stresses life sets out, but if truly the meaning of life is to make yourself happy, then this becomes a tragedy of unparalleled misfortune. That so many can fail in the worst possible way is almost enough to invoke tears.

But with so many getting it so wrong, could it be that we live for a different purpose? Perhaps this tragedy comes about because we're trying to achieve happiness via the wrong methods. Selfish methods. Perhaps instead we should look to other ways to make ourselves enjoy life. Tell someone that the meaning of life is to enjoy it, and they'll start saving for a holiday in the Bahamas. Maybe instead they should be saving for something that will make someone else happier than it will make them. Maybe if everyone drops the notion of what is possibly a terribly deluded self-interest, we can be happier through helping eachother reach heights of elated well-being otherwise reserved for fables and fantasies.

Today, charities do moderately well, if that well, mainly because so comparatively few people help them, or donate to them. Imagine the difference that could be made if everyone had an interest in charity. Either through donations or volunteer work. The extra help would be worth tens of billions worldwide, enough to turn economies around, enough to turn wastelands into bustling cities, deserts into crop yielding farmland, and warscorched earth into playgrounds.

Millions of people would benefit from the aid, and would surely give thanks for it - thanks which would reach those who contributed, and being thanked by someone who's life you have turned around for the good will gratify any decent man far more than a brief trip to some far flung paradise.

Imagine how the world would benefit long-term. Western-class education for millions more people than who currently benefit from it, leading to more skilled individuals, leading to further invention and technological advance.

Perhaps this way is the only way for the world to move forward. At the moment, the world walks with two separate minded feet. One lumbering slowly forward, only as the second slips slowly backwards. Only through sacrifice can we find happiness. Only through dedicating ourselves to the rest of our fellow kind can we better understand the trials we face.

Only through loving, caring and contributing with the world can we reach the stars.

There are a lot of "maybe"'s up there, and of course, this solution doesn't answer the greater questions. Those questions to which there are no immediate answers. But surely it makes more sense! More sense than running yourself into the dirt to afford a holiday, a brief escape from the life you're leading. There is too much living involved in 50 weeks for 2 weeks to cure it. We need more. And by helping eachother, others help you. A united front leading to a greater people.

Sometimes I think the point of life is my friends and family. Sometimes I think the point of life is to listen to music. Sometimes I think the point of life is to learn. Sometimes I think the point of life is to write a book. And sometimes all I want is a barbecue on the beach.

All of this stuff makes me happy, but it would be a hollow, tunnel-visioned kind of happiness if I didn't care about others. Everybody needs a little bit of selfishness; not an all-encompassing me!me!me! attitude, but just a private bit of your life that makes you happy. It might be a garden, or your favourite CDs, or a story you're writing, or even - though this isn't very spiritual - your collection of porn. Whatever, everyone needs something that is their's and their's alone.

But here's the thing: not everybody gets a chance to be selfish. Too many people die of hunger, or from curable diseases; too many people are killed in pointless wars, or in the name of some inflexible ideal. We never meet any of these people, of course, because they weren't lucky enough to be born in a rich, industrialised county like we were. But we let them sew our jeans together, and we let them buy their AIDS medication from our drugs companies.

So we're too selfish, and we're too blind. Either we don't see that what 'we' do affects what 'they' can do; or we see it and we just don't care. Too many people look at the situation in Africa and say, "That's just the way the world is" or "It's nothing to do with me." In the days of slavery a black American was worth three-fifths of a white American. Today the situation is worse: the EU subsidises every cow in our fields to the tune of $3 every 24 hours; a billion people in the developing world survive on less than $2 dollars a day. If you are a poor African, Indian or South American today, then you are worth two-thirds of a cow.

I try to do my bit, but like IB says, if no-one else makes the effort then nothing will ever change. I like IB's idea of everybody working for the benefit of everybody else, a kind of (inter)national service to help out the unlucky, whether they're in Washington or Rwanda. It wouldn't have to be forever, but imagine the change in people's outlook that would come from both confronting and helping to solve the world's problems. Maybe this is too idealistic; I don't care. Unless we realise that the suffering of others is as important as our our own, then I think we're screwed, and we'll deserve to be.

Ah, sammiches, i see now :^)

cookie monster wrote:
> What kind were they?

Brie and Bacon.
A bit swishy, I'll grant you, but they went missing.

ok basically i'm not going to have an agrument on here... i was saying my point of view and others... if you have miss worded your story, then people will missinterperate it... You have also not understood what I was saying and fly into things trying to justify yourself too quickly.. I never said you said most of those things... I was giving an all rounder point of view, coming in through all the angles throughout my post.

Goatboy wrote:
> Yeah.
>
> I'm sorry, some sumbitch stole my sammiches.

What kind were they?

Class.

"Goatboy fired in flashing sandwich shocker"

Rosalind wrote:
> You need me :D
>
> I would make your lunch for you every day and have dinner on the table
> when you came home at night


Crikeys - I need you....

Goatboy wrote:

> Naked Lunch?

at work????

I think you can get fired for that

Yeah.

I'm sorry, some sumbitch stole my sammiches.

Goatboy wrote:
> Unless you're Hev and criticising IB,

Bit slow catching on to the latest name change then...