Are you alive? …should be at least a seven!
How was 2009 for you? Was it your best year ever? (Then give it a rating of ten.) Was 2009 perhaps your worst year ever? (Then, give it a one.) Taking a numerical rating of our lives is a very important task to keep a healthy perspective on things. Too often, we give ourselves a lower number than we really deserve.
Just being alive on this Earth, our “life meter” should be at a minimum of seven. The cold fact that about 16,ooo children die every single day (that’s one every five seconds) should make us feel extremely fortunate don’t you think?
When was the last time you struggled for your next meal? When was the last time you had no clue where you were sleeping tonight? Is your family and community dying from massive outbreaks of Malaria, HIV/AIDS or Tuberculosis?
During the holidays, people are at their most selfish when it comes to ignorantly proclaiming about what they do not have. “I don’t have a long vacation!” “I don’t have a significant other!” “I didn’t get what I wanted for Christmas!” “What? I only got ten presents!?”
Halfway around the world, not very far really, many children are asking: “Why don’t I have any food or water?” “Why don’t I have a house or family?” “I can’t stop coughing. What did I do to deserve this pain?”
By all accounts, we are the lucky ones. We are alive, healthy and extremely wealthy. What arrogance! How dare we complain when…
We should pause and reflect the next time we are about to cry and stress-out about what we do not have. We should start rejoicing in everything we do have. Every day we are still walking this beautiful planet, our life number should be a thankful, solid ten!
A great exercise to do by yourself, or with your family, is to make a written list of all the things that you do have. Compare notes and have a discussion about what is important in life. It should raise your numbers, and your consciousness.
Life is a definite ten!
Todd Norcross
Unfortunately, life is not paradise and never will be. It is not its purpose. You cannot simply stop and rejoice in everything you have. For one simple reason, if you do that, then somebody who is hungrier will come and get that from you. This has happened in history time and time again. People are meant to be hungry for a reason and that is humanity itself. We need to be hungry, so the human race will keep progressing. I would have to say life is a definite 1(no more), but all the other grades must come from your experiences in the world and how you rate yourself when dealing with them. For example, there is nothing wrong with wanting a long vacation, if you worked your ass off on some task that you determined was important to you, for whatever reason, despite of the fact, that there are millions of people that are dying or suffering.