What is life to you?

[Amer Sethi]

Salam to everybody

I'm new on this site, and not aware if this subject recently have been debated or not, but here it is.

Maybe this sounds philosophically, but anyway it's on an amateur level.
Everybody now and then wonders what life means for them, and surely comes to different conclusions.
We are born, we get educated, get a job, family, raise children and gets off work when about 70 and awaits the death.
But what or who decides your life pattern, is it acutally you or is it the social pressure from family or is it because you want to live up to the standards of behaviour in your society and therefore complie to something you could have done without ?

So my question is "who is living your life ?"
Would you leave your job and change your living if you won in the lottery tomorrow?

Maybe I should mention that i'm 29, well established and with family. So i'm following the thread.

[dilse]

AmerSethi..welcome to gupshup
I think it is you who decide what you want to do in your life,question on winning the lotery and leaving your job,no actually lottery money is haram in muslim religion,the money will never be pak,you will be enjoying the haram money,and you have to give hisab of every single money won by lotery or jua/gambling when you are infront of god on the day of judjement,enjoying life now is no fun,this is just a transit period,actual life begins after you die,that is when you have to answer each and everything and it is only you who will carry his or her AMAL infront of almighty god(allah)....allah hafiz

dil..dilseee

[Amer Sethi]

Thank you dilse

Now I was aware of the religious fact but considered pople to take that into count by them self. But winning the lottery could also just be the fact that you are born in a rich family.

Take care.

[NYAhmadiX]

Dear Amer Sethi,

On the expense of sounding pathetic, I will say that my life (mostly) revolves around my family (kids and wife). I always realized it that my family makes me complete, but yesterday's incident was fairly monumental and I would never forget it, for as long as I live.

My younger son 6 yr old, while riding a bike gets hit by an another rider who was riding extremely carelessly. My son was in the ER for 4 hours, he got 10 stitches on his eye, and 6 on his knee. We came out of emergency at 5 pm, and took him to the airport with my older 8 year old son at 6pm. The both flew by themselves to Germany to visit their grandparents. We will be joining them next week.

Last night my wife and I couldn't sleep until we spoke with my in-laws this morning that the boys arrived their all right.

So the focus keeps changing, and the incidents take over. Life is very unpredictable and priorities keep shifting.

I personally, like the way my life is, and I believe I am living it my way. Or at least I have no major complains about my life. If I won a lottery, I will not want to change the way I am living. May be buy a new house and stuff, but not change my life. Did you ever see the movie "Life is Beautiful"?

[dilse]

NYAhmadi..adab..yar sorry to hear about your son,allah ap ka bacha ko jald us jald shafa da..ameen.enjoy your vacation

dil..dilseee

[Amer Sethi]

Salam

First of all, I'm sorry to hear about your sons
accident, hoping he's in good health now.

Secondly, I must agree on the fact that in every man and womans life there are major cornerstones which set the perspective and value of life into a new priority.

No I haven't seen the movie, "life is beautiful".

Allah hafiz

[Felicity]

Amer,
Life to me is having a new experience every day and learning from it. And finding meaning in most things. I have my mind's and feeling's remote control turned on rather than on mute

[Roman]

The following reply definitely is more pertinent here than Kash's thread... plus I am too lazy to rewrite anything else, anymore, on the same topic, two days in a row:

Someone once said, "felicity is in prospering, not in having prospered"... Same is the case with life... Its meanings are hidden in its passing moments, not in a big, whole lump-sump of it.
Every time we try to come up with the answer to life, we are making a very fundamental mistake. Life is what comes as it is, and it should be lived as it comes (except for "donating" to your 401k, that's important, you always want to leave some money for your relatives when you die, they would remember you as one of their "rich uncles" )

We can use as many mataphors for life as we want, and every single one of them would be as fitting as any other ones. But I think the true rejoice in defining the life dwells in the very moment when you feel it.

Today was the day when I tried sushi for the first time. Today was the day, when on a sunny Sunday, my friend Martin pulled off my shirt forcibly in front of a super market and a few spectators since he was not wearing any shirt and I happen to be wearing an under-shirt and a collared one on top of it... and he could not go inside the super-market shirtless. Today was the day when I went inside a super market wearing my shorts and an under-shirt (guess what are the odds of that happening… again?) and when Martin, I, and Joemel came out of the super market, we were laughing our butts off on the whole thing. And then Martin said, "We have a life, don't we?" And yeah, that was true.

Last night I was in one of my intensive gloomy mood swings, and I defined life as a, well, you know what. Today, I had a great time and standing outside that super market, I defined life as wonderful... I was right at both times because that's how life seemed like on both occasions. And at both times, life rendered itself to me with the tint of its potential extremities... and that's exactly when the definitions of life came natural to me... and that's exactly when I want to feel it, with its fullest essence.

Sitting here now, in front of my computer and looking at the junk surrounding my computer desk and dinning table, I cannot possibly be justifying anyone of the definitions of life... as it is too normal, too usual, and too, well, unorganized.

All of the above rambling means that there is no "overall" or "definite" definition of life... When we have one of those dreams where you see your end, or realization of a fragile existence, and wake up with the fullest awareness of it, living through every single second of its post-dreamatic (is that a word?) effect, then, yeah, you can say life is a dream... or when life hits you hard with one of its cruel realities (denial of you adjustment of status application by immigration, for example) then you can term life as a reality.

So whatever definition of life you have, I would accept it as valid, as long as it was an aftermath of the very moment when you felt it.

[Mr Xtreme]

Life is Beautiful? Never heard of it. Who's in it?

If you want to see a good movie about what's important in life watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with George watsisname in it (somebody help me out here). It was made in the fifties I think but don't let that put you off. There's a pretty cool colour version of the film and anybody who appreciates American culture (NYA this is your cue) will be able to tell you something about this all time blockbuster. I guarantee anybody who sits through the film will not regret it.

[Fata Morgana]

Death.

Fata Morgana

[NYAhmadiX]

Dear Mr. Xtreme, I am impressed! It sure is an all time classic.

Life is beautiful is another one of those films that make you appreciate life and make the best of whatever crummy life you get out of circumstance. It is about Holocaust as seen through the eyes of a comedian. It won the best foreign film at the Oscars. I am not sure if it is out on video yet. But it is not playing in the theaters anymore. You MUST see it. Roberto Bignini is a very famous Italian actor.

[zaraatif]

NYAhmadi, hope your son is doing just fine. Let's hear an update!