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Forced to Live


Life is Mandatory! Unconsciously we live.


Every able being is an instrument of life.

Life can leave us naturally, with sickness or old age, but we cannot leave life unaided by someone or something.

Sometimes we curse our hard and stressful life and chant the appeasing feeling of a worriless death. When this latter approaches us and calls upon us to join it, away from the tumult of life, we tremble in fear and ask the perennial two questions: why me, why now?


By the way, I always wondered why we are unable to die happy! Even the believers in a much better life after death, don’t die happy. They probably don’t fear death, but surely they are not overjoyed to die. What a mystery! A possible explanation could be that we don't unequivocally know what is awaiting us once we die, so this uncertainty, if it doesn’t create fear in the hearts of the believers, it does create a certain level of anxiety in all people’s brains. And anxiety, as we know so well, is a very effective antidote to joy.


Our main purpose here is not about knowing the last emotions we feel while dying, but about the reasons of our visceral attachment to life. Actually these reasons fall into three complementary categories: a) intellectual, b) existential and c) affective.


a) The intellectual part finds its sources in our conscious, which reminds us that even if we are not happy on this earth, we really ignore entirely what death is all about. Maybe better, maybe worse. This fear of the unknown is, for the sane individual, the first deterrence from committing suicide.

In addition to the fear of the unknown, the other deterrence is simply the fear of losing and missing all the things we will leave behind once we die. Surely this one applies only to those who have things to leave behind.


b) The existential part is programmed in our genes, it pushes us every moment to breathe and to survive. As long as we have the physical ability, our fight for life will always win over the surrender to death. Often times, when we are contemplating our difficult lives and longing for the gentle touch of death, we are sitting with some friends around a dinner table, eating, drinking, and filling ourselves with the ingredients of life! There is no stronger evidence to our slavery to this latter than our inability to stop breathing long enough to suffocate ourselves. Even when we are in our deepest sleep or coma, meaning almost dead, life implanted in our genes doesn’t stop breathing.


c) The affective part is more complex. The essential question here is: do we care or not?

If we don’t care about anyone or anything, then our life is a sad and depressing slope towards our liberating end. It is possible then, in a moment of sharp awakening, to take the irreversible and final step. In this act, we express that our fear of suffering, in this world and in this specific moment, has surpassed our fear of the unknown on the other side. We still need external aid of some kind in order to execute our departure from this life…

If we care, then for whom, about what, and why?

We care for the people we love and for those who love us, we care about our pleasures, our joys, their pleasures, and their joys. We care about our peace of mind and theirs. We care if they get sick or they heal. We care if they cry or sing. We care if they succeed or fail. We care if they are disappointed or fulfilled. We care if they are oppressed or hurt, if they are loved or forsaken. We care in every moment and every instant. We care about all their feelings, their thoughts, and their stories. We care because they are an integral part of our life, and as long as we care, and they care that we care, then life will prevail and we will continue walking by its side.


Our instincts, our brains and our souls have been programmed to seek life, give life and enjoy living. The brain may break down, derail from its original program and, in a moment of insanity, kill the body of its bearer. The desperate soul may ignore the fear of the unknown, and influence the weakened brain to execute the suicide. But the instinct doesn’t change course, however miserable are the circumstances, however weak become the body or the brain, and however intense is the suffering, the instinct will always seek survival, preserve existence, and protect life.


We are forced to live and life is mandatory!

 THE ETERNAL COMEDY

We are here to spend few years and then disappear. We try our best to enjoy as many of these years as our luck and will allow. Knowing more about life and understanding some of its intricacies will give us more chances to succeed in our quest for joy. The eternal comedy is a collection of ideas, reflections and observations on many of the ingredients that are critical to understand life.

None of the articles will provide the reader with any answer to any of the useless questions of where do we come from, where are we going and why are we here. The knowledge and maybe the wisdom the readers might get out of the articles, whether they like them or not, will help them in answering the most important question:
how can we create in our life more joy than sorrow and more happiness than sadness?” 

 UPCOMING ARTICLES: 

I decided to stop informing this section to allow me full flexibility in publishing the articles that inspire me on any given date. Sometimes, structure is a bad thing! 

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