Value Of Life

598 Words3 Pages
People often question how we should measure the value of life. Can life be calculated into dollars and cents? Should ones value be determined by their life’s accomplishments? Or does the value of one’s life depend solely upon how much that individual embraces and loves their existence? In my personal experience I have found the latter to be true. Life is given value and meaning by one enjoying and accepting it. Someone once said “You should not fear death, but fear the unlived life”. This means that one should not fear the end of a journey, but enjoy the trip. To me this is absolutely true. Why should we spend our time fearing the inevitable? We are given only a few short years to experience the world, friendships, loves, and losses. Even the bad experiences teach us to appreciate the good ones. This doesn’t mean we should all go out and be terrible people just so we will appreciate our good experiences, but rather that we should learn from our mistakes. Lance Armstrong’s view of life is similar to this; he says that sometimes life is fun, and great, and other times it is horrible, but whether good or bad our experiences make us stronger people. It is these experiences which give our lives meaning. Meaning and value however, are completely different issues. So how can the value of one’s entire life and worth be translated into monetary values? The people at most life insurance companies will tell you it is a simple mathematical process based on age, physical health, and income. Subtract $1000 for every year over 40, subtract for any diseases, or illnesses, add 50 times their yearly income and voila! You’ll have the value of anyone’s life calculated in an instant! Unfortunately, this process cannot be applied to memories and experiences. You can’t subtract points for every bad experience, lost love, and abandoned friendship and even the bad memories are carried
Open Document