The Infinite Preciousness of a Single Human Life

CHAPTER2

The Infinite Preciousness of a Single Human Life

THE SENSE OF MEANINGLESSNESS

"it's great to be alive!" How many people live this way, overflowing with

good spirits and optimism? The twentieth century, when technology ad-

vanced rapidly but true abundance lagged behind, has been character-

ized as an age of anxiety. Blessed with material goods, many people lack

for nothing, yet deep down they are discontent, filled with a vague, per-

vasive sense of unease and emptiness.

    Life is vaguely pleasant in its way, and fulfilling. But in its way

    it is also a bore. Day after day, the same routine ... On the

    way home after a hard day's work, jostled in a crowded com-

    muter train, the tired businessperson or secretary lets out a

    sight. Or the harried housewife, caught between the demands

    of housework and childcare, stops for a brief rest. It is at such

    moments, amid the seeming contentment of busy days, that a

    sudden void opens in the heart. And then the silent murmur

    starts up: "My life was never meant to be this way. What if it

    goes on like this to the bitter end? What's the point?" (5)

Viktor Frankl―one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century; the

Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and philosopher―pointed out that

modern man, the moment he is freed from busyness to do at last what-

ever he wants, often feels that his life is meaningless and empty. People

who retire lose their bearing; college students get drunk on weekends;

night after night, we sit passively before the television set.

Frankl went on to say that the reason many people today are beset

with a sense of emptiness is that they do not know why they are alive.

This state he called an "existential vacuum." Often this existential vacu-

um leads to suicide. Other widespread ills such as depression, aggression,

and addiction can only be understood when we recognize the existential

vacuum beneath them. The same can be said for crises of retirement and

aging(6)

Many people have noted that those unable to find meaning or value

in their lives are on the increase, a factor behind various problems in so-

ciety. Even the young are affected. According to the National Institute

of Mental Health, suicide was the third leading cause of death among

people aged ten through twenty-four in the U.S. in 200.(7)Each year in

the U.S., approximately two million adolescents attempt suicide, and ap-

proximately two thousand youths aged ten through nineteen succeed in

killing themselves.(8)

THE STRUGGLE TO OVERCOME ILLNESS

In the front lines of medicine, hard-fought battles are taking place to

expend human life. For organ transplants from brain-dead patients,

teams of physicians work together with split-second timing, removing

the organs and packing them in ice so they can be airlifted by helicopter

or plane. The heart must be transplanted within four hours, so there is

literally not a second to spare. The total cost of a transplant, from deter-

mination of brain death through postsurgical monitoring, runs to hun-

dreds of thousands of dollars.

  But if that same life is doomed to disappear without trace in the end,

why go to such extreme measures to preserve it? One heart transplant

patient, asked by a newspaper reporter what he planned to do with his

new lease on life, answered, “ Drink beer and and go to night baseball

games.” Another man living overseas, desperately sick, raised the neces-

sary funds through the goodwill donations of strangers and traveled to

the United States to await a donor― only to cause widespread outrage

after his successful transplant by refusing to return to work and instead

choosing to spend his days gambling. It is hard not to sympathize with

one indignant supporter who snorted that he felt foolish for having do-

nated so much money.

  We are glad to see scientific advances that extend the average human

lifespan. But the question then arises, “What will people do with the ex-

tra time they have been giving?  Ethical debate over organ transplants re-

volves around secondary issues like confirming the will of the donor, en-

suring fairness in access to the pool of organs, or setting and enforcing

standards for determination of brain death, while the fundamental gues-

tion―”Why resort to such extraordinary measures in order to keep peo-

ple alive? ―goes unasked.

  The goal of suffering in order to combat disease must be not merely

life, but happiness. Treatment that serves simply to prolong suffering is

meaningless. But what if people used their extra time on earth to fulfill

the purpose of life and know the joy of living? Would not today’s life-

saving medical practices then be truly wonderful?

  We are continually surrounded by a chorus of voices urging us to live

and persevere, yet no one stops to consider or thinks to ask why, if life is

so painful, we are bound to go on living. Could anything be more mysterious?

THE “HEAVINESS” OF HUMAN LIFE

In case of shipwrecks or other disasters, entire rescue squads are often

mobilized to save a single life. That is because each life has inestimable

value; in the words of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926),

“Life is heavier than the heaviness of all things” If the innate goodness

of life were not a given, then the practice of medicine would collapse,

along with politics, economics, science, the arts, ethics, and law―　all

of which are nothing more ore less than different approaches to the goal

of living a longer and happier life.

  Each field has its own way of enhancing the quality of life. It is the

role of politics and economics to explore ways for people to live at ease.

unconcerned by threats of layoffs or expensive nursing care. Break-thoughts

in science and technology, meanwhile, have made life easier than ever before;

Doing the laundry used to be backbreaking labor that entailed bending over a washtub,

scrubbing wet clothes on a washboard, and wringing them tightly, but today all it takes is

the push of button. Finding ways to resolve interpersonal conflict and allow neighbors to live

peaceably together is the sphere of ethics and law. And because the prospect of work,

work, work without relief is unbearable, sports and the arts exist to invigorate us.

Each of these fields of endeavor is concerned with how to surmount the hardships of life

and find pleasure in living. Even altruistic contributions to the greater happiness of humanity

comprise a way of living rather than an ultimate purpose of life.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

 "you were born for a reason  

the real purpose of life "　　

Translated and adapted by Juliet Winters Carpenter

(lchimannendo Publishing, Inc.)

“you were born for a reason is a solemn and profound book”

 Edward Seidensticker