Life’s Puzzling Questions

During a moment of quiet my mind returned to matters more intangible and elusive from those more grounded in business and politics. It is in this metaphysical realm that a degree of equilibrium between consternation and clarity exists.

The basic question is not as dramatic as Shakespeare's “to be or not to be,” or to live or die. It is to be or to do.

The answer can either be (a) or (b) but does one necessarily have to precede the other? No, in the case of a trust fund baby who is able to grow up and live a pampered life without having to be productive. So the question is a real choice for the “spoon-fed” adult in the “Garden of Eden” in his prime having health, wealth and youth simultaneously. With these concurrent gifts, should he simply be or should he do something? Is it (a) or is it (b)?

Or, is it (c), neither, for this is not a dilemma for his free will, his parents or the wise but for time, fate or chance to mold its outcome? Can an answer be gleaned from the life of a saint and contrasting it with that of a sinner?

In the case of Francis of Assisi, son of a wealthy merchant, he simply lived, and lived simply. God spoke to him. He remained a humble and holy servant till death.

In the case of GW Bush, born to a wealthy and politically powerful family, he took life by its horns, and rode it as if it were a bucking rodeo bull. Allegedly God spoke to him. He is the current titleholder of Worst U.S. president, an unenviable recognition given to him by 60% of historians in 2009. See http://hnn.us/articles/48916.html

An answer may not be as obvious as one would like and may come as late as the moment of death, and maybe different for different people so that either (a), (b) or (c) could be correct as well as wrong. It would be correct if joy or peace arrives with impending death but wrong if fear or emptiness looms at death's imminence.