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Created on: March 28, 2009
The question, "Is life worth living"? isn't really a valuable question by itself, and the answer reflects the point of view of the person being asked. For example, if you were to ask that question of someone in a concentration camp viewing all the cruelties and inhumanities he or she is being forced to witness, I am sure you would get this," No, it is not. Life is about more than eating, drinking and sleeping. If these kinds of things can be permitted to happen, life for me is not worth living."
No one could criticize that person.
If you asked "Is life worth living?" from a successful, happy person living in a good society, the chances are you would hear, "Yes of course, without a doubt." The successful, happy person might even recall a time when they were not so happy but stuck it out and arrived to the place they are now, or the successful, happy person could simply attribute his good fortune to his overall attitude.
I will answer the question if life is worth living if it is worth living to me personally. I am living in a country surrounded by hostile countries on the outside and surrounded by hostile forces on the inside. I am not always sure if our country is really the good guy. I am not really sure what I believe about survival, if I personally am willing to put ideals before my own personal gain. I am also not wealthy.
Further, I am female and I did not accomplish anything near what I potentially could have accomplished in my lifetime, nor did I come close at all to accomplishing my dreams. I have a loving, faithful husband and three wonderful, children who are becoming good people. I have known love, but I have also known trials. Like every human beings, I have my share of human weakness, faults and personal disappointments. I have days when I look in the mirror, and I look at only 5% of what I see; otherwise, I could not get through the day.
And yet, when I look at my children, and I hear their laughter in the face of obstacles and the lack of guarantee of their own future, my heart is filled with joy and admiration for those courageous human beings who ask and demand nothing of life, who go forward despite the lack of security and with very little help. It is at this moment when someone asks me if I think life is worth living that I am ashamed that the question is even being given consideration and without hesitation I will answer, "Why of course it is - what other alternative have we?"
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