LA  VIE In English

A travers les âges, et ce après plusieurs centenaires, penseurs et philosophes n’ont cessé d’essayer de comprendre ce qu’est la vie.
Et de mon côté, j’en ai fait de même, car il faut croire que le sujet est plutôt sérieux. Pourquoi?

Nous sommes ici, sans nécessairement avoir demandé d’y être? D’accord?
Donc, on peut se demander pourquoi nous sommes ici?

Je serai tenté d’aller demander à ces penseurs et philosophes ce qu’ils en pensent après avoir étudié le projet bien avant moi. Je pourrai même les lister avec leurs commentaires pour mieux apprécier.
Est-ce une idée à developer, car au fond , la vie  n’est qu’un ramassis de souvenirs .

Nous remontons le temps et pensons à nos actions et inactions, ces dernières font mal car elles nous prouvent combien nous avons été maladroits, n’ayant pu faire ce qu’il fallait faire. Ces moments là restent gravés en nous et nous montrent notre faiblesse. Aujourd’hui, je pourrai ou plutôt je devrai faire le récapitulatif de tous ces événements que je n’ai pu, que je n’ai su accomplir, car ils vivent en moi et ne cessent de me rappeler combien je n’ai pas répondu à l’appel.

And here I am talking vaguely without giving details, fearing that these would only make me a little more unhappy.
Yes, I say unhappy, because to have accomplished what I have missed would certainly have given me a certain pleasure, a certain satisfaction. And I will have less difficulty to remember these moments.

Why do I make myself sick doing this exercise?
Why do I intentionally hurt myself by reliving these events?
Why do I always have to dwell on the unsuccessful past?
Why don't I think about the positive things I experienced, because there were certainly positive things.

But, it seems that our nature is such that we have to recapitulate to justify our behavior, because it is indeed about it. So, at this moment, I am standing in front of a judge, wondering what I have done right or wrong in my life, as it is about to end.

In a short time, I will be eighty years old. A number that seems great and that should satisfy me because many people will not reach this number.
Shouldn't this achievement give me some satisfaction?  Any other person than me would feel happy to have reached this goal. I say goal, thinking that it is something positive, but I am not so sure.

Which begs the question, what is the purpose of life?
To make it to eighty? I doubt it.
To do as much good as possible in all these years? I think so.
To leave one's accomplishments behind for others. But all this is rather selfish. Because it is indeed one of the human weaknesses.

Weakness means inadequacy: a lack of strength, of physical vigor, a lack of resistance, of solidity. To be weak is to lack the power and the means to defend oneself. We have neither firmness nor energy. And all this is part of life, making it sometimes unpleasant.

Let's go back to the pleasant side of life. It starts in the family. Large or small, it presents an agenda for the future. Understanding parents prepare their children, giving them affection, good behavior, good education, preparing them for the world that awaits them. For it is they who will lead the world of tomorrow.

If what I have just said makes sense, shouldn't we be satisfied with this proposal?

Let's remember that if our life is a journey that will only be good if we assign it a goal, because we should not think of adding years to our life but rather of adding our life to the years. And above all, we should not compare our life to the life of others, because we have no idea of the path they have taken in their lives. And life is too short to waste our time hating someone. Our life is a school and we are here to learn.

 You would tell me, and rightly so, that there is a parallel between life and death and I would agree with you. If life is a big surprise, why shouldn't death be a bigger surprise? It is a small thing to live, but it is a huge thing to despise life. Is it not true to think sometimes that life is a dream from which death awakens us? And would life be bearable without its pleasures? The fact remains that there is no life that is dominated by the shadow of death. And that is why we strive to repel the idea of death by the outpouring, by the abundance, by the accumulation of life.

Finally, if these few sentences I have just written depress you, then it becomes your duty to go and find the positive in your life, to display it, to shout it out loud and prove me wrong.

P.S. Some passages have been borrowed from different authors.