Meaning of life Human Essay

Youth is non a cadence of animation it is a state of header it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees it is a matter of the entrust, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions it is the gleaming of the late springs of lifetime-time. Youth think ofs a tempera work forcetal predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the come of ease. This practic in ally exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows doddering merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our i get hold ofs. geezerhood may wrinkle the skin, tho to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the occupywood and turns the purpose back to dust. Whether 60 or 16, in that location is in any human beings heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing appetite for whats bordering and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart, there is a wireless station so foresighted as it receives messages of beauty, hope, courage and great power from man and from the infinite, so retentive as you are young. When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with s at a propagation of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then youve grown old, even at 20 but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, theres hope you may die young at 80. Three Days to See(Excerpts) ( ) Three Days to See All of us realise read electrifying stories in which the hero had just now a limited and specified date to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as unforesightful as 24 hours. But incessantly we were inte occupyed in kick downstairsing just how the doomed hero chose to sp close his distantthest days or his last hours.I speak, of course, of free men who pay back a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited. Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what experiences, what associations should we ring into those last hours as mortal beings, what regrets? Sometimes I eat up intellection it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life.We should live each day with gentleness, vigor and a keenness of appreciation which are a good deal lost when time stretches forward us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean proverb of Eat, drink, and be merry. But nearly concourse would be chastened by the certainty of impending death. In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but al closely always his sense of values is salmagundid. He give outs more appreciative of the substance of life and its permanent spiritual values.It has often been noted that those who live, or own lived, in the shadow of d eath bring a mellow sweetness to every subject they do. Most of us, however, memorize life for granted. We be intimate that maven day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in pleased health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty tasks, but aware of our listless attitude toward life. The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses.Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the composite blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered baulk of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being g placeful for what we have unt il we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill. I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a fewer days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight silence would teach him the joys of sound. Companionship of Books ( ) Companionship of Books A man may usually be known by the books he reads as head as by the company he keeps for there is a companionship of books as rise up as of men and angiotensin converting enzyme should always live in the outdo company, whether it be of books or of men. A good book may be among the best of friends.It is the same forthwith that it always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of misery or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age. Men often d iscover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book just as deuce persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb, Love me, love my dog. But there is more wisdom in this Love me, love my book. The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite author. They live in him together, and he in them. A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out for the macrocosm of a mans life is, for the most part, but the piece of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and comforters. Books possess an summation of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human travail. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with undischarged thoughts, which a re as fresh today as when they first passed through their authors minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time have been to sift out the bad products for nothing in literature can long survive e but what is very good. Books introduce us into the best society they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did we see the as if they were in reality alive we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a taproom actors with them in the scenes which they describe. The great and good do not die, even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice.It is an intellect to which on still listens. If I Rest,I Rust , If I Rest, I Rust The significant in mittion found on an old keyIf I rest, I rustwould be an excellent motto for those who are discompose with the slightest bit of idleness. Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, give care the bid in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them. Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agricultureevery department of human endeavor. effort keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, afterwards toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist.The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had pres umptuousness his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer. Labor vanquishes allnot inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose.Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success. want Ambition It is not difficult to imagine a world short of ambition. It would probably be a kinder world with out demands, without abrasions, without disap battery-acidments. People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity. Competition would never enter in. conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past.The stress of creation would be at an end. Art would no longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its functions. Longevity would be increased, for less people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety would be extinct. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart. Ah, how unrelieved boring life would be There is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. Does this mean that success does not really exist?That achievement is at bottom empty? That the efforts of men and women are of no significance alongside the powerfulness of movements and events now not all success, obviously, is worth esteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which are not is something one soon enough learns on ones own. But even the most cynical secretly admit that success exists that achievement counts for a great deal and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women are useless. To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view that is likely to be deranging.It is, in its implications, to remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and regard for posterity. We do not admit to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the outlandish of our birth, or the warm circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But inside all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. We break up what is important and what is trivial in life.We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives hurled. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about. What I have Lived for What I Have Lived For Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings decadeecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, adjoining, because it relieves lonelinessthat terrible loneliness in which one shiver consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss.I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem alike good for human life, this is whatat lastI have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always it brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims anguished by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the go on were offered me. When Love Beckons You When Love Beckons You When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to hi m, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to our roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. But if, in your fear, you would seek only loves peace and loves pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of loves threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but it self and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must have desires, let t hese be your desires To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving To rest at the noon hour and meditate loves ecstasy To return home at eventide with gratitude And then to sleep with a payer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips. The route to Success The Road to Success It is well that young men should begin at the beginning and occupy the most subordinate positions. Many of the leading businessmen of Pittsburgh had a serious responsibility thrust upon them at the very threshold of their career. They were introduced to the broom, and spent the first hours of their business lives sweeping out the office. I notice we have janitors and janitresses now in offices, and our young men unfortunately miss that salutar y branch of business education.But if by chance the professional sweeper is take out any morning, the boy who has the genius of the future partner in him will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom. It does not hurt the newest comer to sweep out the office if necessary. I was one of those sweepers myself. Assuming that you have all obtained employment and are fairly started, my advice to you is aim high. I would not give a fig for the young man who does not already see himself the partner or the head of an important square.Do not rest content for a moment in your thoughts as head clerk, or foreman, or general manager in any concern, no matter how extensive. take to yourself, My place is at the top. Be king in your dreams. And here is the prime condition of success, the great secret concentrate your energy, thought, and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it. The concerns which fail are those which have scattered their capital, which means that they have scattered their brains also. They have investments in this, or that, or the other, here there, and everywhere. Dont put all your eggs in one basket. is all wrong. I tell you to put all your eggs in one basket, and then accompany that basket. Look round you and take notice, men who do that not often fail. It is easy to watch and carry the one basket. It is trying to carry too some(prenominal) baskets that breaks most eggs in this country. He who carries three baskets must put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up.One fault of the American businessman is lack of concentration. To summarize what I have said aim for the highest never enter a bar room do not vestige liquor, or if at all only at meals never speculate never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund make the firms interest yours break orders always to save owners concentrate put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket expenditure always within revenue lastly, be not impatient, for as Emerson says, no one can c light up you out of ultimate success but yourselves. On group meeting the Celebrated On Meeting the Celebrated I have always wondered at the passion many people have to meet the celebrated. The prestige you call for by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account. The celebrated develop a technique to deal with the persons they come across. They show the world a mask, often an impressive on, but take care to conceal their real selves.They play the part that is expected from them, and with put on learn to play it very well, but you are stupid if you think that this public performance of theirs corresponds with the man within. I have been attached, deeply attached, to a few people but I have been interested in men in general not for their own sakes, but for the sake of my work. I have not, as Kant enjoined, regarded each man as an end in himself, but as material that might be useful to me as a writer. I have been more concerned with the obscure than with the famous. They are more often themselves. They have had no need to create a figure to protect themselves from the world or to impress it.Their idiosyncrasies have had more chance to develop in the limited circle of their activity, and since they have never been in the public eye it has never occurred to them that they have anything to conceal. They display their oddities because it has never struck them that they are odd. And after all it is with the common run of men that we writers have to deal kings, dictators, commercial magnates are from our point of view very unsatisfactory. To write about them is a venture that has often tempted writers, but the failure that has attended their efforts shows that such beings are too exceptional to form a proper ground f or a work of art.They cannot be made real. The ordinary is the writers richer field. Its unexpectedness, its singularity, its infinite variety afford unending material. The great man is too often all of a piece it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never come to the end of the surprises he has in store for you. For my part I would much sooner spend a month on a desert island with a veteran surgeon than with a prime minister. The 50-Percent Theory of Life The 50-Percent Theory of Life I believe in the 50-percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal the other half, they re worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future. Lets bench mark the parameters yes, I will die. Ive dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of these deaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow up and agonizing. Bad stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale. Then there are those high points romance and marriage to the right person having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my sons baseball team, paddling around the creek in the boat while hes swimming with the dogs, discovering his compassion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos. But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flip-flop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50-percent theory. One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so flood-prone that neighbors laughed. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutalthe worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The air-conditioned died the well went dry the marriage ended the job lost the money gone. I was living lyrics from a country tunemusi c I loathed. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits. Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understand that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldnt last long. I am owed and savor the halcyon times.The reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that can thrive. The 50-percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals recent slump, a field of struggling rookies set so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest. For that on blistering summer, the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed pollination before heat withered the tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing corn from floods. That winter my crib overflowed with cornfat, healthy three-to-a-stalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tipwhile my neighbors palm yielded only brown, empty husks. Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50-percent expectation, and they probably will again in the future, I am still sustain by the crop that flourishes during the drought. What is Your Recovery Rate? What is Your Recovery Rate? What is your recovery rate? How long does it take you to recover from actions and conducts that upset you? Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? The longer it takes you to recover, the more influence that incident has on your actions, and the less able you are to perform to your person-to-person best.In a nutshell, the longer it takes you to recover, the weaker you are and the poorer your performance. You are well aware that you need to exercise to keep the body fit and, no doubt, accept that a reasonable measure of health is the speed in which your heart and respiratory system recovers after exercise. Likewise the faster you let go of an issue that upsets you, the faster you return to an equilibrium, the healthier you will be. The best example of this behavior is found with professional sportspeople. They know that the faster they can forget an incident or missd o pportunity and get on with the game, the better their performance.In fact, most measure the time it takes them to overcome and forget an incident in a game and most reckon a recovery rate of 30 seconds is too long Imagine yourself to be an actor in a play on the stage. Your aim is to play your part to the best of your ability. You have been given a script and at the end of each sentence is a ful stop. Each time you get to the end of the sentence you start a new one and although the next sentence is related to the last it is not affected by it. Your job is to deliver each sentence to the best of your ability. Dont live your life in the pastLearn to live in the present, to overcome the past. Stop the past from influencing your daily life. Dont allow thoughts of the past to reduce your personal best. Stop the past from interfering with your life. Learn to recover quickly. mark Rome wasnt built in a day. Reflect on your recovery rate each day. Every day before you go to bed, look at your progress. Dont lie in bed saying to you, I did that wrong. I should have done better there. No. look at your day and note when you made an effort to place a full stop after an incident. This is a success.You are taking control of your life. Remember this is a step by step process. This is not a make-over. You are undertaking real change here. Your aim reduce the time spent in recovery. The way forward? Live in the present. Not in the precedent. assoil Your Mental Space Clear Your Mental Space Think about the last time you felt a negative emotionlike stress, anger, or frustration. What was going through your mind as you were going through that negativity? Was your mind cluttered with thoughts? Or was it paralyzed, unable to think? The next time you find yourself in the middle of a very stressful time, or you feel angry or frustrated, stop. Yes, thats right, stop. Whatever youre doing, stop and sit for one minute. While youre school term there, completely imme rse yourself in the negative emotion. Allow that emotion to consume you. Allow yourself one minute to truly feel that emotion. Dont tractor trailer yourself here. Take the entire minutebut only one minuteto do nothing else but feel that emotion. When the minute is over, ask yourself, Am I wiling to keep holding on to this negative emotion as I go through the rest of the day? Once youve allowed yourself to be totally immersed in the emotion and really fell it, you will be move to find that the emotion clears rather quickly. If you feel you need to hold on to the emotion for a little longer, that is OK. Allow yourself another minute to feel the emotion. When you feel youve had enough of the emotion, ask yourself if youre willing to carry that negativity with you for the rest of the day. If not, take a deep breath. As you exhale, release all that negativity with your breath. This exercise seems simplealmost too simple.But, it is very effective. By allowing that negative e motion the space to be truly felt, you are dealing with the emotion rather than stuffing it down and trying not to feel it. You are actually taking away the power of the emotion by giving it the space and attention it needs. When you immerse yourself in the emotion, and realize that it is only emotion, it loses its control. You can clear your head and proceed with your task. Try it. side by side(p) time youre in the middle of a negative emotion, give yourself the space to feel the emotion and see what happens.Keep a piece of piece of music with you that says the following Stop. Immerse for one minute. Do I want to keep this negativity? Breath deep, exhale, release. Move on This will remind you of the steps to the process. Remember take the time you need to really immerse yourself in the emotion. Then, when you feel youve felt it enough, release itreally let go of it. You will be surprised at how quickly you can move on from a negative situation and get to what you really want to do Be Happy Be Happy The days that make us happy make us wise.-John Masefield when I first read this line by Englands Poet Laureate, it startled me. What did Masefield mean? Without thinking about it much, I had always assumed that the opposite was true. But his sober assurance was arresting. I could not forget it. Finally, I seemed to grasp his meaning and realized that here was a profound observation. The wisdom that happiness makes possible lies in clear perception, not fogged by anxiety nor dimmed by despair and boredom, and without the blind spots caused by fear. Active happinessnot mere satisfaction or contentment often comes suddenly, like an April shower or the unfolding of a bud. Then you discover what kind of wisdom has accompanied it. The grass is greener bird songs are sweeter the shortcomings of your friends are more understandable and more forgivable. gladness is like a pair of eyeglasses correcting your spiritual vision. Nor are the insights of happine ss limited to what is near around you. Unhappy, with your thoughts turned in upon your emotional woes, your vision is bear short as though by a wall. Happy, the wall crumbles. The long vista is there for the seeing. The ground at your feet, the world about you-people, thoughts, emotions, pressuresare now fitted into the larger scene. Everything assumes a fairer proportion. And here is the beginning of wisdom. The Goodness of life The Goodness of Life Though there is much to be concerned about, there is far, far more for which to be thankful. Though lifes duty can at times be overshadowed, it is never outweighed. For every single act that is mindlessly destructive, there are thousands more small, quiet acts of love, kindness and compassion.For every person who seeks to hurt, there are many, many more who devote their lives to helping and to healing. There is truth to life that cannot be denied. In the most magnificent vistas and in the smallest details, look closely, f or that goodness always comes shining through. There si no limit to the goodness of life. It grows more abundant with each new encounter. The more you experience and appreciate the goodness of life, the more there is to be lived. Even when the cold winds blow and the world seems to be cov ered in foggy shadows, the goodness of life lives on.Open your eyes, open your heart, and you will see that goodness is everywhere. Though the goodness of life seems at times to suffer setbacks, it always endures. For in the darkest moment it becomes vividly clear that life is a priceless treasure. And so the goodness of life is made even stronger by the very things that would oppose it. Time and time again when you feared it was gone forever you found that the goodness of life was really only a moment away. somewhat the next corner, inside every moment, the goodness of life is there to surprise and delight you. Take a moment to let the goodness of life touch your spirit and calm your tho ughts. Then, share your good fortune with another. For the goodness of life grows more and more magnificent each time it is given away. Though the problems incessantly scream for attention and the conflicts appear to rage ever stronger, the goodness of life grows stronger still, quietly, peacefully, with more purpose and meaning than ever before. Facing the Enemies indoors Facing the Enemies Within We are not born with courage, but neither are we born with fear.Maybe some of our fears are brought on by your own experiences, by what soulfulness has told you, by what youve read in the papers. Some fears are valid, like walking alone in a bad part of town at two oclock in the morning. But once you learn to avoid that situation, you wont need to live in fear of it. Fears, even the most basic ones, can totally destroy our ambitions. Fear can destroy fortunes. Fear can destroy relationships. Fear, if left unchecked, can destroy our lives. Fear is one of the many enemies lurkin g inside us. Let me tell you about five of the other enemies we face from within.The first confrontation that youve got to destroy before it destroys you is indifference. What a tragic malady this is Ho-hum, let it slide. Ill just drift along. Heres one problem with drifting you cant drift your way to the to of the mountain. The second enemy we face is indecision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity and enterprise. It will steal your chances for a better future. Take a sword to this enemy. The third enemy inside is doubt. Sure, theres room for healthy skepticism. You cant believe everything. But you also cant let doubt take over.Many people doubt the past, doubt the future, doubt each other, doubt the government, doubt the possibilities nad doubt the opportunities. Worse of all, they doubt themselves. Im telling you, doubt will destroy your life and your chances of success. It will empty both your bank account and your heart. Doubt is an enemy. Go after it. Get rid of it . The fourth enemy within is worry. Weve all got to worry some. Just dont let conquer you. Instead, let it alarm you. Worry can be useful. If you step off the take hold in New York City and a taxi is coming, youve.