Weighing the good life

After what seemed like ages, facebook helped me reunite with some friends from primary school days. We planned a simple get-together for purposes of catching up, reminisce about the good-old-days and hear about each one’s plans for the future. Most of them had gained a lot of weight; especially the girls and the boys had developed big voices. Other than that, they still looked the same, same behaviours and for boys the hair-cut was the same. Nothing impressive As we interacted, the main greeting word was “How is your life?” “How are you doing?” Now, this is a simple greeting that most of us are familiar with, have used before or been asked. The replies are the same: “Fine”, “OK”, ‘Good” and many others!Later, when I sat with one of my OB’s who was close to me, he told me how his life is actually going and it wasn’t anything near the usual responses we usually give. It got me thinking about how many answers we give in relation to the question above without giving it much thought. I started asking myself, “How am I doing? How is my Life? In the years on this earth, we struggle to improve our lives physically, financially and socially that we don’t find time to assess our lives spiritually. Making it through a day, week or a month doesn’t necessarily mean that life is good. It’s a much deeper question than that, while at the same time being a simple question to answer.A simple random survey brought these results. For the newlyweds; they think a good life is having a great family. Nice wife and beautiful kids. For the Sexagenarians and above, it all about knowing that their children are old enough, they are settled and being responsible citizens and adults. For grandparents, it’s all about seeing their grandchildren, physically and intellectually smart and to be able to give them food and money whenever they stop by.For the bachelors, it’s all about having a nice job, house, going for social outings and a dog for security purposes. It entails relaxing on the weekend watching Premiership games, discussing the day’s events, watching movies, and playing virtual cop on a PlayStation. For the bachelorettes, it means being healthy, peaceful, free from anxiety, having a loving dude, not having to go through so many rough spots, not being forced to trade off one thing for another, or to take many uncalculated risks just to survive.Meanwhile, there are those that place social respect and being part of a community with freedom of choice and action high on their list, whereas for others it’s about having food, shelter and clothing, the basic necessities, are really all we need to measure the success of life. A good life many times equates to a spiritual life full of peace and purpose.Now that all the assessment is done, where on the scale of the good life does that leave you and me and most other people? Personally, I think that life is good depending on one’s definition. This doesn’t come with obstacles or problems. Don’t beat yourself because you don’t have good looks, a girlfriend, or achieved your ultimate goal. Overcoming obstacles and problems is what life is all about; it’s the seasoning that makes life so good.Take some time to think about your own life and weigh what’s really important to you. And next time you are posed that very familiar question, answer it with conviction, knowing that you are indeed fortunate to have the life that you have, if only for the sole reason that it has kept you around to be able to answer that question time and time again.