This is an
interesting question. A question I have asked myself at during the various
highs and lows of my life, maybe not in these exact words but through some
variation of it. A Goth enthusiast may answer “to die” without batting an eye,
whereas an artist might say we live to enjoy the beautiful madness that we call
“life” and a wide eyed little girl might reply with “how else will Prince
Charming find me?” Then there’s us, the Y generation/ the echo boomers/ the
call-us-what-you-wish generation, ask us why we live and most often than not
you’ll hear something like this, “I live because I have to finish my studies, get
a job, support my parents, build a life... Oh! And also to party and do the
things I love”. How confusing and contradictory does that sound? Very, I hope.
When you hear
this answer on repeat you’ll realize that we are indeed a lost generation. Lost
because we’re torn between two worlds; the world indoctrinated in our minds as
children about being a model citizen, getting good marks, finding a steady
income earning job and most of all, making our parents proud. Then there’s the
world fed to us by mainstream media which prattles on about how we can be anything
we want to be, “do what you love, love what you do” they tell us, but can we
really? An old timer might argue saying there’s nothing new here, everyone who
has ever lived must have gone through these motions, but isn’t it now worse
than ever? With so many opportunities being presented to us and the world
buzzing with ideas and innovations there is an immeasurable amount of pressure
on us to “be special”. When you’re reading this you’ll be living the last day
of your life on this planet so far (calm down, no one’s dying), so stop and
take a minute to see where the world is at in this instance, there is so much
of life around us, approximately 7.4 billion lives worth, but why are YOU
alive? If your mind is thinking along the lines of the opening paragraph of
this article, you are not alone and thank you for proving my point.
How does one
live with all these increasing imposed expectations? Most importantly WHY does
one live with it? I believe the fault lies at the very core of this divided
existence, meaning we’ve been taught never to question why both these worlds
cannot co-exist. Most of us never stop to think why we can’t have the best of
both worlds, we throw ourselves at the books from Kindergarten to University OR
we throw our books away and rebel. Then there are the special ones who, through
some miracle, have discovered the key that unlocks the mysteries of life. They
are a rare breed and I have been fortunate enough to meet a few of these
people. They are the ones who’ve struck the perfect balance between both worlds
and they appear to be surreally content with life. Ask them why they live and
they’ll tell you “I live to enjoy life”, WHAAAT? Is that even possible, I
wondered, so I did the only thing my curios mind could do; ask around.
According to some the key is to believe and embody the laws of attraction. To want
something so strongly that you holler at the universe at every living,
breathing moment about how much you want it and TADA! It’s yours! *ding ding*
JACKPOT! Everyone goes home happy. This gives me the impression that if you
think about owning your own private beach, where you party and sip fancy pina
coladas all day long, for long enough it will become yours. If nothing else has
worked for you then feel free to give this method a try. The happy-go-lucky
types looked at me in shock and told me “chill the f*#k out dude! We live
because...what else to do?” What else to do indeed. Nobody told you and nobody
explained, you’re just shoved out, kicking and screaming into this human life
without any idea why any of it feels the way it feels or why this confusion
feels like it’s a hair’s breath away from absolute terror or exquisite
pleasure, and yet we chose to wake up every day and go about our daily lives
because we want to know what the new day brings, because we hope for better
days. No one hands you the all-encompassing “life manual” and tells you this is
how and why you should live, so the best way to save yourself from the
depression that most philosophical pondering cause is to take a deep breath,
stop the overthinking and simply live. Someone once said “stare, pry, listen,
and eavesdrop, die knowing something because you are not here for long",
so get out there and do what you think needs to be done to get the best out of
your existence or do nothing at all and be a couch potato, to each his own is
what I say.
So let me put my
cynicism to rest with these parting words; I live because I was born (even
though I had no choice in the matter) but I do more than merely exist because
curiosity and hope get the better of me and let’s face it, the dreamer in each
of us wants to, oh so badly, see what happens next.
