What does life mean?

Schaz Nightwalker
Nov 3 · 6 min read

Life. We all have our own perspective regarding our lives. But I’m talking about career, goodwill and virtue, I’m talking about life in general. As in, if I see the mankind in a third person’s point of view, I will probably say that humans born, spend their life following their own kind and die. That’s literally it! No, that’s not life. The Wikipedia tells, “ There have been a large number of proposed answers to these questions from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds……”, then on wards making a list of scientific inquiries, psychological significance, philosophical perspectives and religious beliefs. Basically everything they come across. Even Google gives roughly 6 different definitions on searching the meaning of word ‘Life’.

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But I don’t want to sum everything up from the ancient time shibboleth up until today’s latest fancy researches (including philosophy). I like to be specific. So, what does life mean? Why do we live? Or to be more precise…

What is meant to be alive?

I value life. Watching people on TV’s dying by a single stab through heart or a single gun shot really made me think, “geez, it took them like a full three-four, or at least two decades to be able to get on that position life, what for? To die?Talk about a pathetic ending by dying in such a way”. The same thought crosses my mind when I see someone chopping down a tree or its branches. It breaks my heart to see such destruction (of trees, not the humans😒). An average person will say I’m over-exaggerating, but seriously, who cares about it. Being a social outcast, keeps me away from socializing for most of the parts around life. That leaves me with lots of time thinking (&/or overthinking) about some stuffs. I’ve gone through a deep scan and thought about my past decisions in life. And I would say I’ve had a pretty boring life until past few years, not before until I moved out of home. I was raised in a very caring and comforting environment (I’m sorry everyone is, but) ‘isolation’ would be a nice word to express it. I was raised like a prince. I didn’t had friends in my early childhood. I do not know if this is poses the factor leading to the series of events which eventually made me like this or it just developed over time. The life, for me became an exciting journey of meaningful and meaningless experiences over consistent milestones, a fantasy to see the world with my very own eyes, exciting and/or stupid adventures, ridiculous shenanigans, suspense, surprises, improvement, hardships, rise, and of course, fall. Before it was just a typical study-hard-and-achieve-something-big ambition. I just have a wish that in my death bed, when I’m taking my last breath I do not regret not taking any past decisions that I’ve taken under consideration but not had enough of it throughout my whole adult life. So better get it over with than regretting over it, right? We ain’t taking anything with us anyways. So let it be memories and a mindful satisfaction rather than nothing. I’ve done pretty amazing as well as nasty things since then! Let’s leave those stories for some other time.

But we aren’t talking about the ‘me’ life, we are talking about the ‘life’ Life. As in, not only humanity, but involving the whole life form on earth, in general. Speaking of the world of the living, let’s start from scratch.

Long before us, there was water, just ocean water. The evolution at that time barely began. There lived single celled organisms, free floating with the wave of water, just like today’s plankton. They fed on each others. The bigger ones preying on smaller ones. Some of them developed Magnesium sacks, which later helped them to prepare food on their own in presence of sun, a process which we know today as photosynthesis. They started evolving. They turned multi-cellular from unicellular. Some of them washed off to shore, they became ancestors of first plants. So, in some way plants are related to us humans! (I knew it!! I always felt a familiar something with the nature).

Fast forward a couple of billions of years, just before civilization, there was no existence of human colonies or barricaded territories. The life of pretty much everyone or everything is to be born, survive, replicate if got fortune by the process of natural selectivity, and eventually die. It is us humans who bought science, gadgets, study, hierarchy and similar things globally into our lives, such that it became a part of us. And we became a part of the system. But the natural way to live is to ensure healthy genes in one’s offspring in Survival of the Fittest. Anthony Hopkins in his speech, said, ‘we caught up in this circle of life…we work all our lives and in the end we found out that all the money we worked for can’t bring our years back, so live your life in the way it makes you happy that’s all i can say!’. Something similar is said in Ted talk by Phil Scott, ‘gratefulness not in the slightest for what others or circumstances have gifted oneself… that does not count one microscopic wit to how well one dies…. it is what you have become capable of… and what you have done lending a hand to others in need… meaningful help… even help to animals for some reason… help to the rest of Life… then one dies gratefully and in great and limitless joy’. In another video of Aperture, it’s told nothing really matters in life.

Ahh… I get it now!

Even in insects, when a caterpillar turns into a full grown butterfly, it lays egg and die. Or when a queen bee mates with a male bee, its testicles gets ripped off and then the male is not allowed to come back to the hive and eventually dies. Man, It sucks to be a male bee! Every year hundreds of thousands of Alaskan salmon fishes swim from ocean to river, uphill against the flow of current just to lay eggs, during which thousands of them are eaten by various predators. The thing is they are gonna die after laying eggs anyway. Polar bears in Antarctica have a pretty nice routine, eat, sleep, mate, repeat. Well life sure is weird. Now, I can go on and on about it but, well, I got the idea.

Wait… What??

Is that it? I mean, was it really that much of a big deal? To live and die! The heck is happening in the world!! I mean really Bappa? Is this why you send us all here on planet Earth? For nothing? Like for real we are here just to make babies and do whatever we wish which adds up to our so-called our life-lessons? I mean, that was kinda disappointing to know right? What do you know, the whole system is really a goose-chase after all. Okay, whatever! I have too much on stake. I have my plans for ahead ready. So I’m gonna assume that I never learned that. And it’s 3:57 in the morning. Another sleepless night well spent. I gotta sleep now, I have my classes early, at 7. Schaz Nightwalker, signing off.

Schaz Nightwalker

Written by

A student, a doodler, a slacker and…… Oh yeah, a procrastinator.

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