Chapter 2 On the Meaning and Value of Life

When I was a young college student, there was a breeze in newspapers and magazines discussing the meaning and value of life. Some articles were written and discussions were published.I read some articles, but I didn't participate in it myself.The reason is that some articles don't make sense, and I can't understand them.More importantly, I think this kind of discussion itself is meaningless and worthless. It is better to do a few things. Time passed, and in a blink of an eye, I had reached the ninth year of Wang Wang, living far beyond my budget.Some people think that a long life is a blessing, but I don't think it's necessarily true. People live too long, and they can see all the aspects of life and sentient beings thoroughly. Instead, there is less encouragement and more sighs.It's far better to leave the world, a place of right and wrong, earlier, and leave one's ears clean.

So, is there no benefit to longevity at all?Nor is it true.This will have some benefits for understanding the meaning and value of life. According to my personal observation, for the vast majority of people in the world, life is meaningless and worthless.Nor do they ever consider such philosophical questions.When I am lucky, my hands are full of banknotes, I have two meals in the food court during the day, and I go to karaoke in the evening. I also don't understand why I am living this life. Among them, the unlucky ones are poor and destitute, running around all day long for food and clothing, with sad faces and long sighs.Even if the life is still passable, without worrying about food and clothing, and being able to have enough food and clothing, they are still busy all day long, trapped in the reins of fame, and bound by sharp locks.The same is groggy, muddleheaded, not knowing why to live this life.

Where does the meaning and value of life come from for such mortal beings?I myself belong to the ranks of all living beings, and it is inevitable that I am muddled, and I am not an iota above anyone else.If you want to force a difference, there is: I, and of course some other people, have some ideas about life, have thought about it a little, and think that these ideas have some truth. What do I think?Let's go a little further.In today's world, wars are raging, people's desires are rampant, "the yellow bell is destroyed, and the kettle is thundering", it is a very unstable era.However, I am always an optimist about the future of mankind.I believe that no matter how many hardships and twists and turns, no matter how much time it takes, human beings will always get better and better, and the realm of human harmony will never be just an empty ideal.However, to achieve this goal, it must go through the joint efforts of countless generations.Like a relay race, each generation has its own part to run.Another example is a chain, which is made up of many links, and each link is just a little thing in itself; but without this little thing, the chain cannot be formed.In the long river of human social development, each generation of us has its own tasks, and they are by no means dispensable.If we say that life has meaning and value, its meaning and value lie here.

However, this truth can only be understood by a few people of insight in human society.What Mr. Lu Xun called "the backbone of China" refers to this kind of people.For those whose stomachs are full of KFC, McDonald's, and pizza, but in the end they are nothing more than nothing, just like summer worms are not enough to talk about ice, these principles cannot be discussed.They fail to understand their own responsibility for human development. Having said that, I would like to briefly summarize the meaning of the above: if life is really meaningful and valuable, its meaning and value lie in the sense of responsibility for the development of human beings, linking the past and the future.

March 2, 1995