The good life - Bertrand Russell

"The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Neither love without knowledge, nor knowledge without love, will lead to the good life." - Bertrand Russell

I was thinking about life? Following are generally how people think about life. Just have a look at the list and note whether what you describe is there.

Life can be.

A good life.

A successful life.

A rich life

A complete life.

An exiting life.

An adventurous life.

A full life.

A disastrous life.

A poor life

A pathetic life.

A criminal life

A Saint life.

A spiritual life

A peaceful life.

An academic life.

A simple life.

A minimalist life.

... the list goes on.

Life.

Now look at the quote by Mr. Bertrand Russell. Without agreeing or disagreeing to his statement. I like to look at the statement objectively. We can argue all day, whether he was right or wrong about knowledge and love. To me it feels like a jumble of words, we can derive any meaning. Most importantly I like to ask the question "What is life?"

If I ask you the question What is life? You wouldn't have a direct answer. Most likely you wouldn't even be able to comprehend what you feel the life is. Yet, whenever we talk about being successful, rich or spiritual, we embark on pathways thinking that these will lead us to somewhere. You can chose one item from the list given above and write a book about how to be that one and get there. Infact most of the books in our libraries are filled with thousands of those books. Yet, we miss the fundemental question.

The good life

Fundemental question being, "what is life?" Without satisfactory answer to this question. There is no point even thinking about " successful, rich or peaceful " as these are just adjectives. Not even worth focusing on. So, for a wise man or a women, the only thing which matters is finding out answer to the question, "who am I? What is life?". Rest is irrelevant.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not asking you to stop working and be poor. But let it be, if that is what it takes to find answers to the fundemental question about life.

Good life

So, for me, a good life, is a life which is used to find the answers to the question, what is life? Even if we do not arrive there before death, that is a good life. As that is there to it. We are not animals, just to chase food and sex all our lives. We are intellectual pinnacle of nature. Let's not focus on mediocre tasks too much in our lives, that we have no time to examine our own lives. We can do them to survive just enough so that we get there. You should exercise, to be healthy, so you have few more years to answer the question about life. You eat and work for that same reason. Then my friend is a life worth living. I think Socrates is spot on this. "An unexamined life is not worth living"