Do you “have a life” or did you “get a life”?
What Are We Trying to Say?
When we refer to life what are we talking about? Are we talking about the body, mind, spirit collectively? Or are we talking about something which is a form of earth energy. We use the word “life” carelessly. At times it is hard to imagine what we are meaning when we use the word. We use it to refer to the form and elements of our existence as well as referring to the underlying process itself.
Rarely do we question what we mean by life. It’s not just a matter of the kind of life we lead. We joke with each other when we tell someone to “get a life”. Clearly they already have one but it is the form of it which is at question. And then there is the matter of the quality of that life. Our life can be highly variable but we will inevitably cling to it regardless.
Groping For Meaning
At the end of the day we do not really know what we mean by life. We can refer to inanimate things as having life or a life span. Such as a light bulb. It may be there is more truth in referring to life in such a context than we ordinarily realize. Certainly a clump of grass has a life as does that insect on the wall. But in other regards we can raise questions.
Does our planet have a life or do we simply refer to it as having a life span? We understand that our sun has a life span and there will come a day when it ceases to have its present form. But we also understand that it has a rhythm to its activity as seen in its more active and quiescent periods. Are those cycles indicative of a life form.
A SearchFor Meaning
Does humanity as a whole have a life span? Will we die out as a life form if we are unwise about our choices? Certainly we can cause death but do we create our death as an organism?
There is much more to the term life than we can believe at one simple level. Our definitions can diminish it or enhance it just as our behavior can diminish or enhance it.
Life Deserves More Attention Than It Gets
Are you still there or did I lose you? What I’m getting at is that the word “life” has a multitude of layers of meanings. But one of the things I came to in writing the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy is that we seem to suspect we are not alone. Of course most religions have such a belief but there is another level. It may be a matter of imagination, projection of feeling, or a recognition that there are so many different kinds of life forms. But, as I wrote, I kept coming back to the feeling that in this kind of story lay the perception that there are a multitude of other life forms which may be quite sentient and intelligent. But it may be a matter that we simply cannot ordinarily perceive them much less communicate with them. One of the wonderful things about telling a story is that it is possible for the author to rectify that problem.
What are your beliefs about life?
Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt
Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page
Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt
Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt
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