Living Life with Sense of Integrity

Christopher Byram, opinion editor 

In life, only death is guaranteed.

Pain, loss and misery, though very likely, are not sure things. Love, happiness and purpose are hardly evident in this life, much less assured to any one of us, though most living, breathing human beings strive toward those things in one form or another.

I am not one to guess at what waits in the afterlife. I cannot begin to fathom the infinite possibilities, and I do not especially care to. What concerns me, with regards to this article, is immediate life. That is, the here and now, as well as the far and away.

Our purpose in life –as individuals or as an entire sentient species- is entirely unknown, as with many things in life. One can speculate and theorize, but that leads only back into itself. I am also not one to make the drastic assumptions that such philosophy requires. I can only observe the world around me through my own tainted eyes and react.

My initial observation is that the world is a terrible place, and I am living in a particularly wicked region of it. Not as wicked as others, but wicked enough to turn my stomach sour every waking day that I’m in it.

My initial reaction is to hit the bottle and find solace in mindless self-destruction. This tends to have mixed results, which leaves me continually befuddled. It solves nothing, but that’s hardly a deterrent.

Whether or not this life has a purpose does not matter for all intents and purposes of this article. What does matter, however, is what we do with the time that we have been given. Most of us do not care what our lives mean or what we can accomplish, especially at this age. That does not seem to be necessarily a rare or unusual thing, which is fine and well. The world is just fine without an entire race of philosophers, but one has to evaluate the current operating population: a monstrous collective of vile, murdering, raping, pillaging human beings that do little or nothing for anyone else on the planet. That, I think, we can all do without.

It is so rare to find a person that is genuinely selfless. There are plenty of people that put on a good show and certainly do some good in the world, but it seems as though everybody has an agenda. It’s not usually favorable to any more than a small handful of people –if even that. People are generally selfish. Usually I attribute that selfishness to human nature, but I’m not entirely convinced that is the case.

I believe that human nature is basically violent and generally full of unlikable characteristics. Murder, rape and violence are part of human nature. Brutal and unflattering as they may be, they make up a necessary part of our background. Without them, we are not human. Humanity isn’t necessarily made up of noble values and selfless behaviors. Whether that is better or worse is not something I dare think too much on.

Selfishness stems from greed, and I do not think that greed is in any way entirely natural. It is a learned behavior. Or at least, that is my take on it. As with all learned behaviors, I believe selfishness can be un-learned. Many of us will not even consider such a thought, but I think there is room for it. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that it become absolutely necessary for many things to be unlearned –and new things to be discovered and adopted.

It seems appropriate to change things that we find distasteful or unflattering in our personal lives, or immediate surroundings. Do we ever stop to consider that perhaps there is much, much more that could –and should- be changed? Our entire lives are building up to our ultimate demise, and often there is very little time given to us. We all could, of course, live the American Dream and fulfill every selfish wish available to us. It seems to be what we’re doing, currently, but is it really worth it?

Maybe this article is about materialism. Maybe it is about introspection and reflection. Perhaps it’s about all of these things, which I maintain it is to some extent.

There is one ultimate fact in life: tomorrow is never a guarantee. Classically, the adage “living like there’s no tomorrow” suggests a lifestyle of no regrets and recklessness, but perhaps that can be changed.

Surely, tomorrow will come, but for how many of us, and how many tomorrows can we really expect to see? Perhaps we should adjust our attitudes toward one another for the better and stop treating each other like trash. Is there really a downside to living with an attitude that is open to improvement? We could all certainly become better people. Given life’s uncertainties, why not start now?