Carpe Diem

One thing that I want to have done before the end of my life is visit other places and experience different cultures. This is important to both me and humanity because knowledge about other people in the world is key to understanding yourself and others. Understanding humanity results in more peace, tolerance, and acceptance. This leads to my next goal, which is to make a difference in someone’s life.  I have always found helping others to be gratifying and I do what I can in community service projects, but I actually want to change someone’s life because even helping just one person is one step in helping humanity. Another thing I want to possess when I reach the end of my life is a successful career. I’m not sure what kind of career that will be, but I know that I will love what I do, so I want to be successful and climb as high as I set my sights. However, my career, along with the next thing I want to do, is more selfish and personal than valuable to humanity. Lastly, although this is solely for me, not humanity, I want to be in love at some point before I reach the end of my life. I know that sounds trite, and it’s not like I’m on a mission to find it; I just want to experience this supposedly incredible emotion.

We can judge other people’s lives as much as we want, but we’re really just wasting time that could be used to increase the values of our own. Overall, a life’s value is in the eye of the beholder; the value could differ based on the perspective. People may feel their lives are valuable because they are happy, but from a societal perspective, their lives may not be valuable because they are selfish and have never done anything to help anyone else. We can make this decision regarding the value of a life at any point during that life because a person can always change the value of his or her life. However, lives are typically assessed once they are over.

The meaning and purpose of life is to achieve happiness while being a good person. Being “good” is obviously subjective, but I added this part because even though criminals or mean people can be happy with their lives, they make morally unconscious decisions that harm others rather than help them. Part of being a good person is valuing another people’s lives as much as your own and doing what you can to better their lives, rather than just your own.

Utnapishtim Replies

Utnapishtim replies to Gilgamesh’s painful search for immortality with simplicity: “There is no permanence” (106).

Our world has always proved this statement to be true. There are so many examples of extinction, from the dinosaurs to the Neanderthals and everywhere in between. This means that even humanity is impermanent as well, although the thought of the entire human race disappearing is not one that frequently crosses most our minds.

When Gilgamesh hears Utnapishtim say this, he replies with disbelief and disappointment, saying that he sees no difference between his appearance and that of Utnapishtim, an immortal god. Today, every knowledgeable human knows that Utnapishtim’s statement is true and that all humans eventually die. Utnapishtim’s simple answer symbolizes life’s simplicity. You live, you die, the end. Death ultimately gives us meaning in life because it forces us to make our lives meaningful. People get up and go about their business every day because this world is fleeting and ephemeral. Some people sacrifice their own lives for causes that they think are important as a way to create a sense of order and eternal life. Examples of this are suicide bombers in Israel in the past and in Iraq more recently. They think the only way to establish any order is through violence, and their religion tells them that martyrdom leads to salvation in their afterlife or eternal life. However, there still are many who view the world in the opposite way: death scares them into hiding, and their fear keeps them from having any experiences that could make their lives meaningful. It’s like seeing the glass as half empty or half full; you can either use death to inspire you or to terrify and debilitate you.