Live

How to live? Why to live? Those are questions every person asks themselves, explicitly or implicitly. Philosophers and thinkers have had to grapple with them. I do not remember discussing them in class — and I did study philosophy at secondary school. That makes me think we need more philosophy in the classroom.

Viktor Frankl comes to mind because of his book Man's Search for Meaning. And other books such as the Bible. But also short videos where these questions are touched on. Mujica is one of our more recent figures who talked about how to live — about not wasting time on things, and spending it instead on people and relationships.

That reminds me of some TED Talks that mentioned how people who live longer and happier lives tend to have strong, meaningful relationships.

We are experiential beings. We can live through different struggles — and yet even people who grow up in the middle of a war can have happy moments. It is also our instinct to live, to fight for living. Only when you are suffering and depressed might you seriously think about ending it — but even in those moments there may be hope, anger, love... something that keeps you wanting to live. You can have an explicit purpose, or not — because purpose can also be implicit in the way you live.