© T.H. Warrior – Tender Hearted Warriors
– S.S.P. & E.L.C.
Life is our unique artistic scene.
Zhaleh Esfahani
Everyone sings their song and leaves the stage.
The stage is always there.
Long live the song that will be remembered.
„What is life?“
That is a difficult and complex question that has occupied man’s mind ever since the big bang. This question is so heavy that our minds have never been fully able to comprehend it.
What exactly is life, and why did we enter this world? If you sometimes feel the weight of this question, stay with me until the end of the article. I will help you understand „what the essence of life is; what does life mean?„; But it seems like we must first see what „meaning“ means itself.
Great effort and attention in discovering the essence and meaning of words such as life and asking such questions sound like the job of a philosopher, a full-time thinker; But sometimes there is no escaping these semantic questions; We ask ourselves: „what does life mean at all? Why should we give meaning to everything that happens in our lives?
Should everything mean something?“
The truth is, most of us need to give meaning to everything: when a mother hugs her child, it means she loves it; when my manager praises me, it means he is satisfied with my work, tomorrow the weather is sunny, it means we can go to the beach.
Meaning is the connection that is made between two events or experiences in our minds. When „A“ and „B“ happen, our unconsciousness needs to find conclusions and answers; It forces us to make a connection between the two, and finally, we say: „A has caused B“. In the meantime, if another event like „C“ occurs, the issue becomes a little more complicated, and we will not have an explanation for it; At least not that easily. So, we will look at it as a bad and inexplicable event; Because we have not been able to find a suitable place for it in this semantic game.
Most of us subconsciously produce meanings. By doing this, everything that happens around us becomes understandable. But putting it more accurately and realistically, we must say that the meanings we build, is subjective to our minds; For example, if 50 people watch the same movie, in the end, each will receive a different meaning and perception, and the way they tell the story will be completely different from each other. That is why human beings are constantly fighting and arguing in various fields such as politics; it is precisely why the statements of witnesses in court rooms are not very reliable sources. It is all relative to their point of view, where they stand and how far can they see.
I said all this to explain to you how the answer to a question like „what does life mean“ almost doesn’t exist.
The human mind builds two kinds of meanings:
„Most of us subconsciously produce meanings. By doing this, everything that happens around us becomes understandable.“
T.H. Warrior
First type is a „cause-and-consequence“ relationship between two events, and the other one is a better-worse relationship between different things- we basically evaluate them relatively.
When you shoot a ball, the ball will move. When you insult someone, they will react defensively. When you fail an exam, you will cry; Thanks to thousands of years of research, trial and error, a lot of these causal relationships can now be predicted.
Whereas the better-worse relationship, provides us with a scenario of comparison:
It is better to eat than to starve. Being rich is better than going bankrupt. Borrowing is better than stealing.
Determining the good and bad of different things is an important part of the nature of our values. It is through this structure that we determine what is most important to us in life. Deductive reasoning to determine whether different subjects are better or worse than each other, belongs to the emotional part of our logic. In general, anything that makes us feel good, will be considered as „good“ or „better.“
Both methods help us give everything some sort of meaning so that we can live and keep going. The reasoning processes for discovering meaning and finding answers to various questions such as „what is life“ have contributed to human survival. From the beginning of history until now, human beings have needed to rely on meaning to survive;
For example, when you think about how to find food, how to hunt different animals, how to predict and study patterns of climate change, etc., you need a meaning. You need to know why you’re doing what you’re doing.
The meaning of life has been and is nature’s tool for human motivation. Making sense of events enables the willingness in us to live. Sometimes these meanings become so important and sharp in color. When our child is sick, we put ourselves through hell and back to save them. Some of us would do the same things for our beliefs, things that give us a sense of belonging, such as our countries. It all boils down to the nature of the meaning we’ve nurtured in our heads. I think it is safe to say that all our actions, decisions, and our entire life depends on how we define our lives.
To me, life is not about the text but its subtext. It is about the unspoken, less obvious yet there to be seen signs. As you might remember, a few paragraphs ago, I wrote, most of us need to give everything a meaning. That was the main text. Its subtext would be the fact that only a few of us are more conscious about finding definitions. This small group doesn’t seek meaning- because they already know why they’re here. They know their role. They know they are in a play called life; they are here to play their part to perfection and leave.
„The meaning of life has been and is nature’s tool for human motivation.“
T.H. Warrior
When an actor is on stage and has a full room of audience in front of him, script, wording, lighting, directory, they all become irrelevant. It all comes down to the actor. Can he play his role? Or is he going to stare at the director or the fellow actors for the next cue?
Let me clarify by an example: imagine having a partner who knows what they want to do with their life. They don’t interfere with your life, in fact they’re only complementary. When you have them in your life, living with them, side by side, would feel like you have found the perfect piece of a puzzle and you’ve placed it in the right place of your life. This applies to good friends, supportive family members, and loyal employees. They all have a role to play. They come in your life, and they play the parts that would impact you.
Those who know the subtext of their lives are able to read between the lines. Don’t get me wrong- I am not saying that they don’t cry if they fail an important exam. The difference is that they are fully aware of the reason behind their tears. They have a bird-eye-view. They know that this exam was just one single part of the big picture.
Have you ever asked yourself why you really cried about failing your anatomy exam? Was it because you value your studies so much, or you failing your exam would mean you will graduate later, meaning you’ll have to be a student for that much longer, meaning you will find a job that much later, meaning you will meet the love of your life and get married and reach all you ever wanted ever since you were a kid that much later? There is nothing wrong with wanting to get married. But there is something very wrong about not knowing it. Not knowing the true reason behind all you are working for—the true reason behind how you pass the days of your life.
Now let me take you somewhere familiar:
All of us have been through that one particular event that either shifted our whole direction in life or had a huge impact on us. It could be a sudden tragic death in the family, failing an exam, a car accident, or even a break-up.
I remember mine vividly: to this day, every time I go back to that day, my hair stands up on the back of my neck. One day I somehow got the courage to talk to my sister about it. She told me something that I will never forget:
She said: „Remember when we had our first PC in the living room, and you loved playing this video game? When the monster in level 3 knocked you down, did you get upset? Annoyed? Insulted? Angry? Or did you continued playing regardless?“
From that day on, I found a new definition for my life: „My life is that video game!“ when beaten up by the monster, I didn’t get upset; I got up and still had fun. The more he hit me, the more I’d press on the kick button, and the more fun I had. It wasn’t personal. It was just a game.
I learned a very important twist, though, much later in life, when I learned how to play poker. Professional poker players don’t bet much on a bad hand. They don’t play over and over again because of their ego or emotions. If they sense that it’s not their night, they get up and play again, a fresh start, another night.
As fun as falling down and getting up again in life could be, you must always have in mind that every getting up should be different from the last one. Life does not always have a pattern.
Finding a meaning for everything is what has cost many their entire life. As I said in my article „change,“ life is like a crapshoot. Trying to define everything and having a pre-perception of every single event in mind would cost us our chances, our limited time.
It’s like acting on stage, and reading the „long pause, says passionately, grabs the right hand, etc.“ out loud. If you don’t know how to play, it won’t matter how great the text is, how well you’ve memorized the subtext by heart, or how perfectly you have defined everything for yourself. You will always be reacting and not acting. You will follow everybody else’s steps. You will have somebody else’s meaning of life carved in your brain. You will sing their song. You will live their life.
A great actor reads the text, knows the subtext, keeps a poker face, and never breaks character.
The audience laughs; he doesn’t break character.
The audience cries; he doesn’t break character.
A loud sound in the hall grabs everyone’s attention, but his; he doesn’t break character.
„You will always be reacting and not acting. You will follow everybody else’s steps. You will have somebody else’s meaning of life carved in your brain. You will sing their song. You will live their life.“
T.H. Warrior
No matter what everybody else is doing, he is on stage to play his role. A role that everyone shall remember. He doesn’t break character.