Measuring life!

“There was a private jet waiting for me, as I finished my lunch; Does it mean I have finally arrived in life?” I was just joking in the family group about my work trip. “It means you have arrived in the place you are meant to go and nothing else, don’t talk too much, berated my dad”. I apologized. I was just playing anyway.

As I lay down last night after the gruelling 24-hour journey, tired as I was, the thought never went away! What does it mean to arrive in life? How do we measure life?

Are success and failures good enough indicators to measure life? In that case, what defines success and failure?

Is money a good indicator of a successful life? Or of life itself? But, money is a privilege, is a blessing, isn’t it? Not everyone is accorded the privilege. The more I travel, the more I’m convinced that money can never be an indicator of success in life.

Last week I was in Singapore! The modern-day epitome of wealth and success. Clean roads. Swanky malls. Fancy cars galore. From there I entered the country I’m now in. You can see poverty and hopelessness on the faces of people here. Does it mean they have failed lives here and Singaporeans have done life right? No, there is so much left to chance if we measure life like that.

Then can life be measured based on the influence one has on society? Like, if I’m a doctor and I save lives, can I be called successful? Then, does it mean, people who work hard in the fields fending for themselves and their children alone haven’t had a life?

Can life’s meaning be measured by the amount of travel one has made? If I travel to ten countries every year, can I be called successful?

Leaving aside all these, can life be measured based on happiness? The happiest having done life right.

Ah, the complexities of it all!

Last week, a few friends met together after 20 years. As dreamy-eyed young boys and girls, we parted ways. Life took each of us in its own way. Not one of us followed the same path as the other. Each of us lived our own lives. The way we were taught to/provided to live.

So why do I have to measure life in the first place?

I live mine, and you live yours. I respect yours, and you respect mine!