To the Fullest...

My bicycle made its usual clicking as I walked down the hall of my apartment complex towards the outside world. ‘This is too early for any human to be awake,’ I kept telling myself. Groggy and stiff, I carried my two-wheeled transport down the stairs and out the front gate. Needing one more stretch, I threw my hands above my head and felt the amazing creak that only an early morning stretch can give. It was suddenly interrupted with a sharp pain in my side. I brought my hands down to find the source and fell upon a wasp, struggling to escape my tank top. As the pain spiked, I was suddenly amazed at the feeling. While not the most earth-shattering thing, it was still fascinating. When was the last time I felt something like this? Not an annoyance, but pain, physical pain that stimulated my nerve endings and registered as a need to be attended in my brain? I couldn’t remember. How far we have come as a species! I ride my bike to work, come home, study, go to sleep, wake up and do the same thing. I go have a drink, go to a party, a restaurant, out on a date, but pain is something nearly forgotten. This sent my mind spinning through my own timeline of humanity. We have lived in advanced comfort for far shorter a period than as animals of intelligence. Even when we advanced to create permanent buildings in which to live, we still had to work the land, chop wood, hunt for food, and through all this, experience pain. We are now, as a species, separated from where we once were, from where we have spent the majority of our existence. Something in life as basic and natural as physical pain, and I have gone months without feeling any. My pain that morning led to this blog entry and the question: what does it mean to live? Everyone hears that expression, live your life to the fullest, but what does that mean?? It was an unexpected Proust moment on my way to work.

            In no way do I expect to answer this question, but more explore what I feel are four general areas through which people feel they are fulfilling their life. Carrying on with your life in the following four ways, separately or together, seem to cover what most people are doing when they claim to be living life. The first is experiencing things that are closer to our original animalistic instincts, similar to how I felt that morning with my sting. Pain, ecstasy, running, jumping, all these things make people feel good. While there are endorphins that flow through your body, is there something more? Exercise tends to make people not only feel physically good, but also leaves a lasting impression of accomplishment. Now, this might just be the good feeling of ‘working out’ when it is so disdained by the majority. But I like to think the human brain is a little more complicated. I think that working out equalizes your body to a natural level. Studies, experiments, and biological analysis have shown the various ways that humans have evolved to match their environment. One of these ways is the conditioning of our body to run. With the way that our feet and legs are shaped, our muscles work, and our bodies handle stress, it is clear that we were made to run long distances. Millions of years of evolution have contributed to constructing our body to run, so doing just that would be essentially, what we have been built to do. It would make sense that we feel a connection to our old self if we exercise. Coming closer to what we evolved to do also makes us feel alive in the best way. In moving closer to our natural state, this might be a way for people to live life in the best way.

            Or is being alive doing the opposite of conforming to others? Maybe being unique is living life. For this post, lets generalize this idea to ultimately doing what others do not. This translated to being spontaneous, doing exciting things, and surprising people with different decisions than are typical. It is common on social media to see people expressing their desire to live life and posting photos as evidence that they are doing it. While what they post is not unique, it fits the idea of ‘uniqueness’. Anything from going on a hike and watching the sunset, going skydiving, travelling to another country, or scuba diving, shear numbers show that these are not unique acts, but we regard them as special and interesting things. It brings about a feeling of accomplishment similar to our previous paragraph but this is a social feeling, not a natural one. We are fitting the mold that others have set in order to be unique. With the approval that we receive, it brings about the expected enforcement that we are doing well in our lives. These people are the envy of others, and we see them as living life.

            But is there a way to take it even further? Although these great doers are using money, opportunity, and ambition to do things that we would like to do, is there a way further outside that could be considered truly living life? It is common that whatever is prevalent at the time, seems to also join the zeitgeist as something to disdain by an ever living minority. It is a natural part of human life to embrace change, but to also resist it. If you ever have the opportunity to read the regulations that carriage companies tried to impose upon car owners when they first came into prevalence, I highly suggest you do. Today it is modern technology, cellphones and computers, things that disturb the natural predisposition of peace and quiet. We all know some who take this drive to the extreme and commit themselves to a Walden-esque lifestyle. They don’t pepper their life with exciting trips to Thailand and ride elephants; they sell their house, move to Thailand, and buy an elephant. For most people, this is an insane, and yet fascinating process. It might even have a small amount of jealousy mixed in with our amazement, ‘I wish I was so bold’. Lots of people have similar feelings when going through some sort of crisis, whether midlife or midmarriage, it comes in many shapes. We see these people as doing what they want and not being constrained by the overarching plan that society has pressed into your mind as the most sensible way to live. It’s simple and comfortable, you are born, you go to school, then a job, then marriage, then you stop working, then your die, or as one of my professors used to say, “life sucks, and then you die.” But these people do not accept that, they break the mold and live their lives by completely rejecting the norm. These people are not just unique, they are alien, but does that mean they are living life to the fullest?

            Why must living life involve an action? It seems that what really sets us apart from the other living creatures in this world is our brain. Maybe what gives our life punctuation is what we should focus on as the way to determine living. Living life could be simply knowing and consciously taking time to appreciate that you are alive in this moment and those who surround you are doing the exact same thing. And thus, this is my fourth contention: that what it means to live your life is to be aware of it. Life is a very easy thing to get used to because you know nothing else. It has always been there for you, and it will always be there until it is not, but then, you wont know the difference. There is no proof that we have a second chance, another life, are reincarnated, ascend to heaven, fall to hell, or float around as a ghost. There is plenty of evidence that this life is real, that your thoughts are your own, and that you are. I know I am guilty of suddenly realizing a day has passed, with little happening in that space that is worth remembering. But when one makes the case to consciously witness their life, it makes everything a little slower, more defined, and more special. Time flies when you are having fun but at least your remember those times. When you are bored, time moves slowly in the moment, but you have no memory of it after, so in retrospect, time moves even faster when you aren’t having fun.  I don’t know if this is the correct answer, but it certainly does make one feel good. It would be wonderful if Occam’s Razor could be applied to every situation as I just did.

            I don’t want to side with any one of these possibilities as the answer to what it means to live your life, but rather advice on what is a short meditation. Life is a funny thing that we run through many filters, we place the value of what we do on the shoulders of others as much as our own. There was a chap back in the day named Pascal who developed a idea that it is best to live as if there is a god, for fear of eternal damnation on the chance this was correct. Though some regard this as a loophole in the religious contract, I think the idea is sound with a tweak. As noted above, there is little evidence of life after death, so it is best to bank on what we know. Since it is uncertain, why not live your lives as best you can? If you are going to follow a religion, follow the only rule not in question, love thy neighbor as thyself, to quote the Prophet Ferrell: E.L.E.

 @FitzFile