Why are we alive? Why are we afraid of dying? Why do we struggle so much to make ends meet? Why do we go ahead and work for more than we need? If it was simply for survival, wouldn’t food, shelter and clothes be enough? Is it necessary to wake up before dawn to feed yourself? I could go on but I guarantee that I will never find the answer. We work too hard but life slaps us across the face. It leaves us broken, tired, beat down, lethargic to a point of self-indulgence to find sanity. So, what is the point of it all? When looking at life in this manner, you would ask yourself why you are alive and do everything to make sure you stay alive, yet in the end no one makes it out alive.
Humanity is the most crucial part of this life. At least that is what we think as beings of the highest intelligence of this god forsaken earth. (I specified earth, there might be life in the universe out there). Yet humans are their own greatest adversaries. A human being will watch you sacrifice your comfort, waking up at dawn to go find a meal for you family, or have sleepless nights trying to find a means to live; and come rob you without an ounce of shame. A human being would deliberately use your weakness to their advantage and not give a shred of empathy when they leave you biting the dust. An old man would consciously molest a child without caring about the future of him or her. Humans are selfish, greedy, hardhearted to you as long as you are not of benefit to them. A human being will take your emotions, string you along and leave you beat down and too messed up for other people. Human beings will kick you when you are down that you forget your hopes and dreams. For a species that tends to outlive all other, humanity is doing its best to counteract the theory.
Fate? Destiny? Antecedent? These are other factors that will make you see the ugly face of life. Tons of things we don’t expect just find their ways to us. Misery, loss, heartache, disasters, hunger, economic strife, accidents, diseases. No one expects them but we have had to condition ourselves to be ready for them. We have normalized misfortunes that we spend millions of hard-earned money in preparedness for what is purposed to come. But what else would we do if that is part of our existence? We have no control over a lot of things in life that we end up living in fear of what we don’t know. Disaster can knock at anyone’s door at any time. We don’t know who is next and when it would come to us. We are afraid to be passionate enough to go for what we like and therefore stick to what we know. Because, what you don’t know won’t hurt us. When it’s finally our turn we will ask, ‘why me?’ as if we didn’t know that we didn’t have much control over our own lives. It is as if we never saw it coming yet we invested in the chance of it.
Life is not simple, thinking about it in this way would make you want to leave. It will make you lose interest and sight of what would really make sense to our existence. Just like a humanity, life has two sides. Good and evil. Life is aesthetically ugly. Yes, life is beautiful. In fact, it is too beautiful to let it go. We have already established its transient nature, yet, that makes it even more beautiful. The lyrics to the song ‘Rise up’ by Andra Day, is a call to us not to concentrate on the part of life that beats us down, making us want to let it go and fall to our knees. It is a call to us to rise up and fight in spite of what we have to endure. Life is a merry-go-round. One day you are up, another you are down. But do you stay down when you are kicked to the ground? No. you rise up. You take what is meant for you and that is the beauty of life. In our quest to set happy conditions for our lives we tend to forget the beauty of what we have. Perhaps this might come as a shock, but do you realize the beauty that music offers us? I mean, life has music. If you are anything like me, music would fill your heart up almost to explosion. There is a kind of joy and relief that comes with music. Why not chose to accept this beauty that life has offered?
Love is part of life and another thing that is very beautiful. Unless you are trying to find it from all the wrong places. We always think that we are alone and that no one loves us yet, somebody out there is worried sick about you. Someone is having sleepless nights unaware of your whereabouts just hoping you are safe. It could be you mother, father, family, friend or soulmate. How beautiful is that? Wouldn’t you rather see this beauty and show them love as long as you are alive?
Life is artistic. There is beauty around us everywhere. Seeing your mother with a smile on her face, seeing your father proud of the person you have become. Laughing with your siblings while sharing a meal. Enjoying the sunset with your soulmate, embracing nature. Isn’t it beautiful? Walk out of the ugliness and move mountains. Don’t be afraid to live your best life. There’s more to life than an expensive car. Dust settles and life gets better when you rise up. Life is for the living. Enjoy the beauty!