One left detail, another brushed attempt at trying to be acknowledged, trying to be something, striving for recognition. How is the world's view through a lost child's eyes? What is politeness and respect, in their most basic of definition? Does acting religious make you a good person, notwithstanding other factors?
What are we doing living. The real purpose?
251 babies are born into the world every minute. The current death rate of the world is 107 deaths per minute.
Cries of joy, cries of lament.
Every single minute.
Do you remember this particular song about how wonderful the world is? What a Wonderful World. I hear babies cry, I watch them grow. They'll learn much more, than I'll ever know.
When I went to a hypermarket not long ago with Father, I saw how everything became more practical, economical, as to make everyone's life easier. Then it passed my mind, what's the point of it all? These people would die in the end anyway, what are they trying to make in their life? Buying easy-to-build wardrobes for their growing children who need new, bigger ones. Trying to form happy families, raising their babies who would later turn insolent in their teenage years. Trying, trying, trying to reach the ideal life. Have a family, work a job with decent salary, then die after making sure to pass on certain amount of wealth for your descendants. Really, what's the point?
This may sound bleak-- no, it is bleak, in this way of thinking. The world, while getting better, is getting worse as well in many aspects. People are not more happier than they were back then in 1900s. Or the years before that, or the years before that. Babies grow, babies die when they get old. How many names have gone forgotten since then? How many life stories have gone unnoticed? What is the point of living our life when in the end, it would all be forgotten?
I asked what's the point of it all. I did not wholly understand it until Father told me this:
"We live to make each other's lives better. Happiness is when we respect and help each other."
Realize that the point of us living is to take care of what we have at the moment. It is what makes the world a wonderful place to live in. To preserve the earth, to laugh, to care, to not be indifferent of others' sufferings. Our names might be forgotten, our graves unmarked, but our actions live. People remember kindness and it passes on. Teach your children to treat others well, and they would teach their own children again to do the same. Life is not about getting what we want, or making sure that we'd never be forgotten, or even reaching the ideal one. Life is about making other people's lives easier, and thus, ours easier as well. Life, is to take care of what's around us.
Someone could be religious, praying five times a day, or going to church every Sunday, visiting temples every weekend, but it doesn't guarantee that you are a good person by doing so. What actions do you take? Do you help others?
Do you make their lives easier? Or do you make them worse? How do you treat others?
Seemingly Minuscule
7 September 2013