What Does "A Life Well-Lived" Mean?

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:27:24 -0400

What does a "life well-lived" mean?

I do this to myself: I announce to the world that I am going to write about something. I sit down to write. Then, I realize I have no idea what to say!

Well..maybe that's not exactly true. After all, I already live a certain kind of life and because I live it I must think it is better than other options.

Perhaps the life I live is not exactly the "life well-lived". However, it is a closer approximation to what that might mean to alternative lives I might live.

I think my suburban, middle class life is better than the thug life I read about in the papers. I may not be living the "life well-lived" but at least I'm not dodging bullets or running from the police or always looking over my shoulder to see if a drug lord is on my tail wanting to collect his money.

Maybe the "life well-lived" is like quality. I know what it ain't. I know it when I see it I'm just not sure I know how to describe it.

Part of the challenge of defining anything is related to the times we live in. If I want to say "this is 'the life well-lived'" there will always be someone who asks, "How do you know?"

Here's a story about baseball umpire Bill Klem. The pitch was thrown, the ball whizzed past the batter and into the catcher's mitt. Everyone waited for Klem to call the pitch. The batter turned and asked: "Well, was it a strike or a ball?" And Klem replied: "It ain't nothin' 'til I call it."

Is a strike or a ball a fact in the world (i.e. does it correspond to some predetermined standard that is seen as "THE TRUTH"?) or is a strike or a ball only because someone says it's a strike or a ball?

What is a "life well-lived"? Does it correspond to some standard or is just whatever one wants it to be or what some community wants it to be?

All of this may seem like so much prattle. (Is it prattle because it corresponds to some absolute as to what makes up 'prattle' or is it 'prattle' because you, dear reader, don't care or don't like it or because it is giving you a headache? See the problem?)

However, isn't it the case that we are constantly shown competing images of what makes up a "life well-lived"? Isn't that what much of the fight is about?

Is it the lifestyle of the rich and famous? Is it the hip-hop life? Is it country or urban living?

What is the "life well-lived?"

James 24:7 - Purpose

What Does "A Life Well-Lived" Mean?