Defining The Meaning And Value Of Human Life

The biggest cliché of all the questions already had the most varied range of answers. The value of life could even be answered by simple a way: that each individual constructs its own meaning. That is because everyone has their impossible mission in here. Each life has its own peculiarities. With that being said, people are different as to other’s attributes, history, and desires. But deep down, that is the kind of question that masks some of the insecurities that all people have. Understandably, everyone wants a sense about life only to make all their sufferings worthwhile. However, happiness is the only thing that matters. The search for the meaning of life becomes another question, which people consider much more important: how can people live their life fully, making the best of it, obtaining the greatest happiness and causing the greatest positive impact in other lives every day? Perhaps it will never be discovered the real meaning of life, but it is very likely that it can found some ways to live better through this path. Yet, we are in such rush every day, that we do not even see that the real value of life goes through our eyes every day.

If people stopped to think a little more about this, they would see that the first thing that comes to their mind is that life is made of materialistic things. For example, the need to own money, to acquire goods like jewelry, automobiles, real estate, and others. But this is still not the true value of life. The true value of life is yourself being at peace with everyone, and having friends and family to share all of your victories and all of your failures. As we saw in this Module, Frankenstein’s biggest struggle in life was that he was lonely. He did not want money, properties or anything materialistic, he just wanted company. Because after all, even though we take it for granted, relationships and communications are what defines someone a human. Consequently, there is nothing better than waking up every day and seeing the morning sun, and feeling like there is a purpose of living. In the struggle to acquire peace, and pass it on to other people, there are always people to lend a hand, to help. And one day, it will be rewarded. Not with material goods, but with the clear conscience that the world will be much better. By these behaviors, our planet will become a 'garden' of happiness. This garden is people’s actions, and these actions give the garden life.

Someone’s actions can make their value and their mission in this world accomplished not just once, but several times. One of the things that most people suffer in life is finding what it is worth struggling for. Finding 'your thing' can be very scary and can take a long time. But as Steve Jobs said in his article 'Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish' (25). Struggling really hard for something and actually accomplishing that, might make people see the real value of life. Because in life, successes go unnoticed. Every day since someone is born, they have been successful, learning to eat, walk, run, talk, love was the first successes and nothing is as gratifying as falling and getting up. Furthermore, no matter how many times someone falls, they need to find a way to get up. Because success does not make someone, but what they went through and suffered to achieve that success. Undoubtedly, that is what makes someone human, that is what gives a person meaning in life.

In life, what people have is not worth as much as what they are. It is worth what they do and above all, it matters what someone does with themselves. People have the power, the power to do well, to overcome adversity, reduce friction, convince honest businesses, improve jobs, expand friendships, have peace in their home and everything. The more people become convinced that they can be happy, that they have in them the attributes of peace, action, endurance, and love, these factors come to them. Nonetheless, if they prefer to live in lamentations, in refusing to practice good or in cultivating vices, they unnecessarily erect barriers to themselves. The barriers just get on their way of finding their real mission in this life and replace the only certainty that we have in life, with foolish, unimportant commodities.

An example of theses unimportant commodities is how a human’s life is calculated. The fact that companies and government place price on human life is humiliating and disgusting. The value of a human being can not be defined by how much they earn in life or how high their status in society is. Because in the end, no matter how much money had and what someone did with their career, everyone will end up the same way. This quote written by Kenneth Feinberg explains how the system calculates someone’s worth, “Our system of justice has always been based upon this idea- that compensation for death should be directly related to financial circumstances of each victim”(line 6) The fact that a deceased plumber's family has to strive for misery while a deceased CEO's family earns everything and a little more, even though they do not need to, shows even more that many people still have not yet found the real value of their life and they are only worried about the undiscovered country.

Referring to Hamlet’s Soliloquy, “The undiscovered country, from whose bourn”(line 24), is the afterlife and the human race will always be curious about how it is there. Because death is the only thing we can hold up to in life. Knowing that one day life will end is one of the few certainties that we carry. And so, people need to do everything in their power so that each experience is unique, each memory is joyful and each discovery is unforgettable. Living intensely, without fear of risking everything. After all, time does not come back to do what people leave for later. Concluding, the value of life seems a very insignificant thing to peoples eyes. And maybe, this it is not a subject that goes around everyone’s mind and many humans spend their entire lives without seeking and considering which is the true value of their life. Still, when we find ourselves in a situation where we have to answer to this question, it seems as if it this the most difficult question to answer because there are so many things that involve a response. Despite that, there is no right definition and everyone has their own perspective on the value of life.