No School for Living

If you are still dazed by all these questions about life, its meaning and your role in it, consider this; When we were young, we were made to go to school – I was anyway. We didn’t know why we had to go to school, but we went, and we did what we could. As we progressed from one year to another in school, we gradually know the reason we go to school. It was to learn how to read and write, and to get an education.

So it is with life with us now. We may not know why we are here, or the part we play in Nature’s scheme of things, but we do what we can. We progress from one year to another, doing the best we can with what we have, until such time when our destiny is made known to us.

Leo Buscaglia said, “There is no school for living, and a dearth of teachers of life. If we look to formal education for answers, we are most often given knowledge without judgement and facts without meaning. If we expect answers from religion we are often persuaded to make the leap into faith, for which many of us are sorely unprepared. When we are incapable of complying, we are often made to feel incompetent and dependent. If we try to learn from life itself we find that often it seems full of unforeseen dirty tricks for which we are not ready and from which we seem to glean little. If we attempt to learn from examples, we find too few models.”

How true! So how do we know that we are living right, and doing what is required of us? How do we know that we are on the right path? We don’t. We find our way through trial and error, through our tribulations in life. As we journey on in life, the knowledge and experience we acquire will be our guide.

The gist of the matter is we are all given a chance to make full use of our ‘term’ here on earth. We are equipped with the means and capability to carve a life for ourselves, put meaning into it, and in the process, find out our role in the scheme of things. We might not have the means now, but they are out there waiting for us to claim them for our use.

Now, consider the little character in the computer game. He starts out with nothing when the game begins. But on his way to slain the dragon, or his pot of gold, or whatever is the objective of the game, he collects a sword, or a shield, or whatever ammunition he needs to help him battle obstacles along the way, so as to achieve his purpose.

So it is with us. We started out with nothing. But as we progress in our journey through life, we equipped ourselves – with knowledge, experience, wisdom, and whatever we need to handle the obstacles in our lives, so as to fulfill our purpose.

There are many parallels to be drawn from the simple computer games if you would think about it. For example, we have a time span – just like the character in the game – to finish the tasks that are required of us. If we succeed, we move on to the next level, (remember the struggle of the caterpillar before it turns into a beautiful butterfly), and if we failed, or if we messed up, we start from scratch again, and again and again.... until we succeed.

Can you identify yourself with the little character in the game?