Where Do Humans Get Their Life Value? Life and Death… I Can Tell You.

It is a very basic question to ask, one that I don’t believe very many people question that often… if ever. Where do we get our life value? This is a separate question from ‘what is our purpose’, which is more of the root question. But when you ask about strictly “value”, you get into a hotbed of all sorts of ideology. “Who are you to judge me and put a value on my life?!” You might say. Fair enough. But who are you to not question it about yourself?

I’ve asked this question to several friends of mine and they all seem to spit out the same answer; family, friends, and religion are pretty much the exclusive three responses. But this still isn’t going deep enough (inception anyone?). Jokes aside, the value of your life is NOT family, friends or religion… because I could see someone in the world living a very happy life without any of those three items. So I’ll ask you again, what is the one true thing in every single human life that makes everyone worth something?

And no the answer is not that it’s different for everyone. The answer is time, or lack there of of it. Seems simple and mundane and almost cliché which is why some of you probably stopped reading after the end of that last sentence, but hear me out.

 

Everything great in this world, EVERYTHING, is great because we die. Am I being pessimistic, no, I’m being the opposite. Think about it on the extreme side. If we were impervious to death, what would be exciting? Where would the value come from in accomplishing something great when you virtually have an unlimited amount of time to accomplish it? What would the level of love be towards your family if you knew they were always going to be around? What about looking back on years past, you wouldn’t be able to quaintly remember the carelessness of your childhood or the years of your college prime because the aging process would not exist. Exist, that’s a funny word, because without death, all you would be doing is existing… instead of living.

Time is the currency of life. And that cannot be refuted.

The reason we have value in our lives is solely because our head is ‘on the chopping block’, so to speak. Because our time is limited on this planet means that every decision we make will unequivocally alter the path and the final position of our lives. It doesn’t mean that there is no room for mistake in your decisions, it just means that every decision is an important one… even the ones that seem terribly mundane like if I should ride my bike to work or drive to work. Or if I should call that girl I’ve been thinking about or wait. Or if I should apologize to a friend for borrowing his book without asking.

Obviously, religion is a huge factor in how people view life and death. For many religious, the purpose and meaning of life is to worship the lord. Which is a completely valid purpose if that is what you believe in. On the other hand, atheists and agnostics believe that they are more at peace with knowing there is nothing after death. To them, it puts more worth on life itself because the end of life is more (shall we say) “final”. Which brings my argument to greater light… humans, in general, find worth in life the more they realize time is against them.

 

Take a terminally ill patient, for example. How many stories/movies/books/magazines/tv shows/etc. have you seen that depict a terminally ill patient going out and having the time of their life? The list is endless, I think the show House probably has 15+ episodes with just such a story line. Why do people have the urge to go out and make something of their life? Because they have a heightened sense of imminent death. Can you imagine what you would do with your life and what you might accomplish if you had such a heightened sense of imminent death? It would be unbelievably rich. The time you spend with your family, friends, partner, would be beyond simply love. Everything exciting you do would be infinitely more cherished. The little things in life would already mean more to you than ever before.

Every person has stakes in the game of life and it all revolves around the time you have on Earth. Every person believes in their own reason or purpose for existing but until you understand the value of it and why the value of your life only exists because you will eventually die, then you might as well not have a purpose. If I were given the option to live forever, or even simply to live well into the future, I would politely decline; It would suck the value out of the actual living part of existing. Death is more connected to life than anything else, so live it up, and make yourself worth something. So use the time you have such that when you get to the dying part of life, you’ll be able to look back and say, “yup, that was worth it”.

Please, leave a comment if you agree or want to share your views on where we get our value.

Poem: Human Existence and Purpose

Existence.
Have you taken a second to realize who, what, where and ultimately…why we are.
Have you thought of why we go the distance?
To dress the way we dress. To act the way we act. To be who we are expected to be.
Why do we need to eat certain foods at certain times of the day?
Why do we need to wear name brand clothing everyway?
Why do we all have those friends that make random noises?
Or why do we find the need to speak with rules and with curses?
Have you looked up in the sky at night and thought…
With 400 billion stars in our single galaxy,
Why is it important to cross your t’s and dot your i’s?
Why is it important to make every single picture look like a prize?
Earth is in the middle of a cycle of ice ages,
The existence of dinosaur and man is merely in between the non-living.
The biotic world we know is only 2 millionths of a percent of earths existence.

So?
Why is it important to wear the most expensive watch?
Why is it important to live in the biggest house?
Why is it important to eat your food with a knife and fork?
Why is it we judge one another as if it mattered?
Who are we to think we have a purpose in this universe?
Next time you are walking through the hall, or talking on the phone,
Take notice in what you condone,
Take notice in what you see other people do when there is an unknown,
Take notice in why people think they are on top of a throne.
In the grand scheme of things,
Is it necessary to do what we all do?
What we all do for self preservation and others cooperation over the foundation of why we exist.
What is our purpose to live out our lives on this planet we call Earth.
Unfortunately we will never figure out what its worth.
We can only guess as to what we are meant to do and why we are meant to be.
Could there be a universal role as to why? I think not, but there is no guarantee.
But I can tell you what we must believe to disagree.
We must believe to disagree that we are not meant to be.
We are meant to be because we do have a purpose.
The purpose we must believe is not that we are keystone in this universe.
Not that we are significant, nor meant to hold a role.
But rather we exist for the soul purpose of existing.
And we persist for the soul purpose of persisting.
But we still have a purpose.
Why is it we sit for hours and watch our favorite shows?
Why is it we find obscenity humorous?
Why is it we make friends and enemies?
There comes a point in your short life where you realize what matters.
Where you realize who matters, who never did matter, and who always will matter.
Why is it we must stick with the masses?
But then why do we have social classes?
Being absolutely objective, what is really necessary and what isn’t?
Now that you have taken a minute or two to think about the real…
Who, what, where and ultimately why we are.
Now we must learn to think about how we live the life we feel is real.