The Introduction.
What is life? What does life mean to you? Why are you here? Why now? Have you ever been asked any of these question? By who? Why? What did you discover while responding? Most times, when individuals are asked these questions, some tend to respond religiously, while others tilt towards a response backed by logic, realism, optimism or even pessimism. Whichever way you chose to respond to any or all of these questions, there is neither a right nor a wrong answer. Even more interesting is that, if a group of five or more persons were to answer these questions alone, excluding other members of the group, a remarkable finding will be this, the answers to these questions will, vary from person to person based on the individual’s knowledge, level of self-awareness, ability to strategically think and life’s experiences. Simply put, your responses to these questions are unique to you and largely subjective.
My interest on the subject matter was greatly piqued in a course, called Nature of Human Beings at the Lagos Business School, Lagos, Nigeria. You may wonder, of what use is this to a Business School,however, as we make progress over the next few weeks, we would see how man can make meaning of life’s challenges and how the will of man plays a significant role in man’s response to circumstances that arise around him.
In order to attempt an overview of the subject matter, I’ll be examining the following resources in subsequent posts, a movie titled, Front of the Class, another movie titled, Tuesdays with Morrie and a book titled, “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl. The purpose of reviewing these would be to avail you an opportunity to journey with me through my lenses to find out the various experiences of the main characters, their individual contexts and how these contexts shaped them.
These resources above mentioned had one thing in common, which is community. It may be too early to conclude that the essence of man’s existence is significantly tied to those he surrounds himself with. What do you think? I firmly believe that the quality of life of an individual is greatly linked to the individual’s ability to think and ask questions. There is so much knowledge that our brain is capable of bringing to light when we ask questions. The moment we choose to take a pause from life’s demands and begin to look inwards, then the journey to finding our purpose truly begins. As you ask yourself these salient questions, document the questions and your responses. As you do these, your responses will birth even further questions and this would be answers to questions which may have tugged on your heart for the longest time.
In conclusion, the quest to understand life’s meaning is a lifelong process, characterized by numerous critical thinking and asking of questions and a sense of community. The quality of life of a man and the approach, he adopts towards resolving life’s issues and the outcome of such life is a great indication of how much he has learned to make sense of the negativity he is surrounded by.
