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What in the World is the Good Life?

  • Jessica Trochez
  • Sep 20, 2015
  • 2 min read

The Good Life

Life’s known to be a vessel that’s not always simple to navigate, thus it’s in our nature to seek refuge in a place that guarantees stability and safety, away from what could possibly steer us towards uncertainty. However, achieving a life one has some control over is impossible without first allowing oneself to sink in order to learn how to swim. “Ignorance is bliss”, many people will preach, but on the contrary, this very ignorance can become one’s downfall; there’s no better way to develop than to confront and conquer our demons. The “good life’s” not a specific standstill ideal, but rather one that is ever-changing; a life that allows one to grow and focus on self-development. Coming to terms with the inevitability of happiness and tragedy while also understanding the purpose of both forces is crucial to becoming the master of both worlds—the key to achieving peace and happiness. In the article, Is God Happy?, Leszek Kolakowalski examines whether it is actually “possible to be aware of evil and suffering” (3) and still be perfectly content. With enough intrinsic motivation, it’s possible to take all suffering and learn from the pain; to suppress one’s feelings and to avoid confrontation is to limit one’s ability to grow. Once an individual welcomes pain with open arms rather than with a game of cat and mouse, euphoria drapes over like a blanket of ecstasy. The pain they endure will merely become lessons learned and each lesson contributes to their own “good life”, all while participating “in the pain and joy of others” (Kolakowalski 4), overcoming such obstacles, and exploring what lies underneath the world’s skin.

One of greatest acts of treachery is to confine your human spirit from immersing in new experiences due to the fear that tragedy could be right around the corner. In other words, without taking risks and preserving balance, our own “meaning of life” (Preston 11) is detained. Douglas Preston’s The Dalai Lama’s Ski Trip exemplifies how even a wise, spiritual and temporal leader still craved adventure and learning. Even though the trip itself put the Dalai Lama at a great risk of peril, mere danger didn’t stop him from welcoming change. Through even the silliest of experiences, greater happiness is ensured. The world’s constantly undergoing transformations necessary to sustain human life and while some of these alterations appear to do more harm than good, suffering is needed to maintain life’s equilibrium. If we choose to ignore this call to adventure towards the “good life” and flee or ignore the sorrows of life instead, it’ll merely put off living; therefore the only option left is to not only be conscious of pain, but to also make sense of it and why humans must undergo through adversities. From the top of the first page until the end of your novel lies several sharp turns, curves, and a jarring road, all to be surpassed and jostled; so as long as we make the most out of our experiences, we stay in touch with our humanity and our spirit untangles itself from the smothering ropes of binding.


 
 
 

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