What is the most important thing in life?

WHAT is the most important thing in our life?

I am sure most of us must have asked this question some time or other in our life. I have posed this question to a few people and I have received a diversity of replies including health, integrity, money, happiness, determination and family.

The reply I liked the most was from a 16-year-old teenager.

He said the most important thing in life is life. Without life, he argued, everything else becomes academic and irrelevant. Hence, he argued that it is most important to understand, value, protect and appreciate the life that we have. To him, once we understand that, the rest follows.

The discussion with the teenager, though it took place some two years ago, came back to my mind in the midst of thinking about the reactions I have been receiving about the Covid-19 pandemic.

Without doubt, Covid-19 has had diverse economic, social, psychological and emotional effects on the majority of ordinary people.

We had first-hand experience with a group of people who overnight became challenged to maintain their families when the first lockdown was imposed in March 2020 due to the pandemic.

It was also unpleasant for us to be reminded that there are still many in Malaysia who live on low daily wages despite our proud proclamation of decades of independence. I cannot imagine the daily fate of the foreign workers in the country and probably even worse, the fate of the illegal immigrants. How will they and their families survive?

Even my friends who are in the higher income category were complaining of depression, boredom and growing demotivation. This was probably due also to the social isolation caused by the lockdown and the movement controls. Other than economic challenges, major restrictions on movements and continued confinements are known to cause emotional and psychological problems.

A friend commented that 2020 was non-existent and the whole year seemed cloudy and uninspiring. With such perspective, it is very easy to fall into despondency, indolence and depression. If we do not pause to ponder, the vicious cycle of despondency will create even more problems to our life.

There is, however, another perspective. If you have lived through 2020, you have experienced life, though challenging. Clearly, this is the first time we are experiencing a global pandemic of this nature and of this scale in our life. Hence, there is a great deal for our mind to understand and adapt.

Existentially, some of us face real bread and butter issues while others may face purely emotional and psychological challenges. Whichever it is or even if it is both, the fact remains that so long as you are alive, you have to respect and appreciate the gift of life. In my view, this is a very important mindset. As the teenager correctly pointed out, so long as you are alive you have to continue to do everything possible within your circumstances to live as well as you can.

As the saying goes, the show must go on. The difficulties that we may face should be spurring us with greater motivation, courage and feelings of gratitude towards overcoming them. The alternative is not an option – to be dampened by circumstances and the wet blankets around us.

To me, once we understand that in life, it is life itself that is the most important, we become aware of many things, especially during this pandemic.

Firstly, we now learn to be more appreciative of life and what we have. Whatever setbacks we face, we are aware of the many more blessings that we still have. This awareness would spur us to be positive and overcome the temporary challenges. Otherwise, we may become trapped in the vicious circle of despondency and depression which may our waste life somewhat.

Secondly, we learn that whatever difficulties we face, there are others who face greater difficulties. We may suddenly become aware that despite our own difficulties, we are in a position to lessen the burden of others in some way.

The act of assisting others would somehow strengthen and uplift our own spirits because there is an inherent joy in giving.

We learn that our life cannot blossom by subsumed with selfish concerns and interests alone. The fact of life is that while we ourselves cry in some areas of our life, we can cheer others in other aspects of their life.

Thirdly, when we become conscious of life, we are reminded that life is a concoction of tears and joys, experiences and events, both sweet and bitter. In this way, we learn to embrace the comprehensiveness of life’s nature, be at peace with it, and appreciate the true significance of the present without being unduly burdened by the uncertain future.

Last, but not the least, life teaches us that it is not possible for us to be truly happy when there are collective sufferings around us. The one who wants to be happy will attempt to seek out the causes of these collective sufferings and develop compassion in the process.

It is this compassion that will move us to help the life of others, thereby increasing collective happiness in our community and making our own lives meaningful. That is why life is the most important thing in life.