If we accept the fact that the single-most thought-provoking, frightening, dreaded event in a humans life is death (and by that I mean that most people fear that to a greater or lesser extent), I’d be a charlatan to say that I don’t. I think I’ve come to terms with it in many ways, because I thought I was dying many years ago. Death is still unknown – we don’t know what’s going to happen after that. There are a lot of people who have said they have had near-death experiences and such; nevertheless I think it is most important to live each moment as it occurs, not to worry about what could happen and what might not happen – just enjoy what’s happening now, and not dwell too much on the past.
If we accept that one of the most important events in a human being’s life is death, and we think about what are the most valuable things during that human’s life, there are 4 things. 3 of them are critical to sustain the life and the 4th is certainly necessary for a meaningful life – without it people have ended their lives, ended others’ lives etc. The 4 things in order of importance are: air, water, food and love. Without air, we can last for maybe 5 minutes at the most, water we can last for 3 or 4 days without, and food probably 3 or 4 weeks. Love is very important – it creates good human beings and without it that goodness goes away, for a life without love is a barren existence.
Those 4 things are the most valuable, and yet for some reason over the last few thousands of years, we have cast them aside, don’t think much about them, or we think we’re paying too much for them, and simply don’t value them as much as we do gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, sapphires etc. etc, all things that cannot directly bring us life support. I was wondering as I walked yesterday why this has happened. I think a lot about what we’re going to do in the future, even though I’m not going to be there. We’re going to have to change many of the things we do if we want a happy, fulfilling and meaningful life for our future as a species on Earth.
(to be continued…)