Measure a life

Often times, I’ve been describe, by really close friends and relatives, as an overly logical person. The reason why is because I frequently ponder things that seemingly have no answer. But over recent months I ran into an intellectual brick wall, while conjugating a question that surprisingly has burden so many before me. That question is: What is the measure of a life?

I began my quest for answers by using the most invaluable tool in society today, the internet. I typed my question to the all knowing Google search engine and embarked on my mission for knowledge. As I carefully sifted through the websites given to me by the omniscient Google, I read many articles about the subject.

Some stated that life’s measuring stick is the accomplishments one achieves while progressing through life. The articles spoke of people like William Shakespeare, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gandhi whose accolades are almost unmatched. They believed that people shoot to surpass people that have done great things and that is the reason why people should use them as the measuring stick for life. But I tend to disagree, because there are numerous people who have done great things but aren’t remembered. For instance who knows who Peter Durand is……(the inventor of the can to preserve food). Or how about this who knows who invented the electric iron….Henry W. Seeley. That’s evidence that not all people who do great things are remembered. I know the changes caused by one might be greater but all the people I named are great people to model yourself as but accomplishment can’t be used to measure a life accurately.

So in an act of frustration I left Google, unhappy with the answers given to me by it and went to ask for the knowledge of Jeeves. So I went to Ask.com and presented him with the same question hoping for a different answer. And that’s exactly what I was given because the websites I skimmed through said that life is measured by faith. The arguments presented stated that faith is a measuring tool because it determines what happens after death. For example, Christians believe that you have two possible places for afterlife heaven or hell. And it will be determined by your faith and the decisions you made while living. Whereas Buddhist believes in rebirth and that karma is the determinate of where you will be born again. All religion is beliefs and pertains to faith. And to the people who wrote the articles I read, that is how your life should be measured; by how much faith you exhibit while on earth because it determines where you will go ultimately. But what about those who don’t believe in a religion, what will they be measured by.

Disappointed by the answers I was given, I shut down my computer and began to think about it while asking myself; how do I measure a life? I sat and thought for hours considering all the variables I could think of. Then, as if in a seen from the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon, a light bulb came on illuminating my intellectual world. I developed an opinion saying that the measuring stick of life is not only the things I read but most importantly its, you. As I thought about the question, I remembered this movie I watched a while ago entitled,” the Bucket List.” In the movie, one of the characters said that in ancient Egypt they believed that in order to enter the afterlife you had to answer two questions. One being, did you find joy? The second was, did you bring someone else joy? I believe the ancient Egyptians had the right idea, and that that is the true measure of life, the joy you bring to the people around you and if you died happy; that, to me, will have a lasting impression on the people you interact with. Because, lets be real everyone will not have the legacy of Shakespeare, MLK, Jr., and Gandhi. So for the people who don’t there joy will be the sum of their life. Joy is a recurrent theme in life because if you find joy you will be happy. And in your happiness you will cause someone else to gain happiness by being the source of joy. It’s kind of like people with joy, being as power sources of joy, and with every smile and kind word they distribute their joyfulness to others. This leads to those accomplishments, this leads to strong sources of faith and joy leads to love.

In the end, the measure of a life is not how much money you get (although I want a lot). It’s not measured by how many years in your life. It's measured by the life in your years.(Bill Clinton) It’s measured by the joy you bring to others as well as yourself. It is measured by the legacy you leave to speak for you when you can't speak for yourself. It’s measured by the love people feel when they think about you, it’s measured by the path you took and how you finished. I for one want to make my own path and finish joyfully just as the character in the movie did with “my eyes closed and my heart open.” How will you life be measured?????