The Meaning of Life
Uploaded by grraaccee on Mar 23, 2006
It's 10 minutes to 9 and the night is dark and cold. Completely unaware of the surroundings, fear and anxiety possess within. Grasping for air, the weather continues to drop. Heart's Racing - this is it; this is how it ends.
The national homicide rate in 2004 was 5.5 per 100,000. Philadelphia's homicide rate in 2004 was 22.2 per 100,000. (Philadelphia Inquirer.) Twenty-two percent of the city's population died within the past year. For every 10 seconds another person on this planet is laid to rest. Death occurs so often, that retaliation and accidents become one in definition. Ernest Becker said, "The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity - designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man." It's amazing; in the midst of death is when someone truly determines the value and the importance of the life they luckily still possess.
Every time someone questions what they did within the duration of their life, two things will happen; you either will see them bow their head in shame, filled with regret because they feel that they have failed in not only their own expectations, but also the expectations of others. Or, you will see them raise their head in dignified satisfaction because to them, they've accomplished their goal and are ready for life’s next challenge. But no matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you've experienced, each and every person possesses a goal, an ambition or a purpose that must be pursued. Even so, before successfully fulfilling one's objective in life, despite what happens, within each person three characteristics will always become evident; one will always experience fear, success, and failure. Being able to accept all three characteristics with no complaint is the most valuable tool one could ever possess.
The most complicated question one could ever ask is to define the meaning of life; to elaborate the means and basis of our own existence; to put into words the physical, mental, and emotional inclination that one must experience with every given step. Happiness, sadness, and regret are all examples of mentalities that just cannot be put into words. To explain life is not impossible but simply just a waste of valuable time. Albert Camus once said...