Thursday, August 15, 2013

Life: what is it all about?



It’s somewhat ironic how one death put a pause on my blog writing experience, while another death almost exactly six months later has moved me to get back into the swing of it. The sudden loss of one of the nicest people that I had known, Chavelo Hernandez, in February triggered weeks of frustrating phone calls, emails, and communications to get his body back to Mexico (for more details, see the previous blog entry). Well, thankfully, his body was sent back but, even then, I still couldn’t bring myself to write out of how “busy” I thought myself to be.

Last week, I along with many other people who knew her, were shocked and saddened to hear about the sudden passing of a friend Anaely Arocho. She was my wife’s friend from high school and her college roommate at AUC before she came to Southern. Her death gave me a renewed perspective on the reality of life.

Death has an interesting way of reminding all of us about our own mortality and finiteness, doesn’t it? After the last death I faced in February, I tried to be as involved as possible in meeting the needs of my work and church. Same thing goes with all of us: we work, go to school, and fill our lives with “busyness” but when someone close to us dies, how important is all of the busyness of your life?
This more recent death has caused me to ask more questions about my life. Namely the following:
 What am I doing to leave an impact on the world?

  • How will I be remembered?
  • Am I living a life that I can look back on and be proud of?
  • What am I working towards?

 Really, these are the kinds of things we all probably ask ourselves subconsciously and should ask ourselves more purposefully. That’s why we as human beings have an innate desire to fill our lives with some sort of meaning or purpose. This search for meaning has given birth to all kinds of ideas and theories on the “ultimate purpose of life,” some say:

  • to see humanity and human thought flourish
  • to see the environment flourish
  • to see other cultures
  •  to seek pleasure
  • to be happy
  •  to do your duty
  • to love
  •  to seek wisdom

 For some people, there is no ultimate purpose. You live your life and then you die, and your existence fades to black. Now, today is not the day to discuss the validity of each of these worldviews. My point is, if you haven’t taken the time think about what life is all about, you may want to put that on your agenda at some point. We take many things for granted and assume that we are entitled or have “a right” to be happy and live long prosperous lives. Guess what? Life doesn’t work that way.

Make it a point today to call up your loved ones and say hi to them. As much as possible, seek to live in peace with those around you. Live with no regrets, but remember: while people will tell you to “just do you” and do what makes you happy, there is a consequence for living a life where you are the center of the universe while ignoring the rest of the world (not to mention that this theory is impossible to live out in practice; we simply can’t ignore people- you’re proving my point by reading this). Take time today to enjoy the amazing gift of life.