How you doing, this is Mr. Eddie Treadwell calling from Alger Correctional Facility here in Michigan, and I would like to speak about how we define life.
For one, we—as humans—we always find the need to find a sense of satisfaction in our actions. The things that we do, we wanna be satisfied, we want to engage in activities that bring us a sense of joy and pleasure—either for others or for self. And when you do it for others, it’s a reciprocal thing that’s going on, that makes you feel a sense of being appreciated, or the act of just giving from yourself to others brings you a sense of joy as well.
So, the question is, what is life? The thing that we engage, the thing that we possess? What is this thing called life? What is the purpose of our lives? What, what is it? And I’ve done a lot of in-depth thinking on this particular topic and derived, at the conclusion, that life…
We are striving to live, right? We’re striving to engage in various different activities and—this, that, and other—that bring us this sense of joy and satisfaction. It inspires us, it moves us to be able to do for others or provide for ourselves. It’s not just being—merely existing, or being animate: we just moving and doing things, but we ain’t accomplishing nothing, nothing that’s being done. We don’t feel a sense of relevance and importance and, you know, a sense of worth.
See, through your activities in life, we establish a sense of… wealth—of being worthy, rather. We have a sense of being worthy of doing something. We have a sense of satisfaction. We have a strong sense of belonging, you know, to the human race. So, we engage in various different things to try to establish that particular sense of satisfaction.
Now, we vary in our ability to actually establish this particular satisfaction. We vary in our ability to do this. Some people have a difficulty in trying to find that which makes their life worth living. So, you know, we come to merely exist. So these are the individuals who their existence have no meaning, have no purpose. They tend to aimlessly wander through life without any sense of direction. Life—man must find meaning for his life, his existence, in order to thrive, and strive, and achieve whatever it is that moves him.
I think that we as humans understand that we cannot live our lives to this highest level of satisfaction if we don’t join in the bands of society. Most of the time we have to engage with other people around us. We have to be social beings. We’re naturally social beings, so we have to be social. We have to interact with others, and you know what I’m saying, to participate in various different activities with other human beings and try to make your existence relevant to them.
Just like, if you buy your son, a little child, a pair of shoes, a gift, just the joy in their face of receiving a gift—they don’t have to say a word to you—just the joy and look in their eyes sends back a reciprocal joy and satisfaction within you. These are the type of feelings that we’re supposed to try to hold onto in our everyday interaction with people.
You know, think about what has given you the highest sense of joy and satisfaction in your life? And once you reach that conclusion of what it was, then this is the feeling that we’re supposed to try to encompass within our being every day. You know what I’m saying? These feelings make life worth living. It make you feel a sense of something that it’s hard to describe in words.
The only other sense of feeling that I can even match close to that is to find a woman who you are more compatible with or a man who you are compatible with. We all complement one another. [Inaudible] Love. They make you to be your best self if you make them their best self. And once we can find this, then this is heaven right here on earth. We start building, we start thriving, we start creating, we start being our best selves and creating the best that we can offer to them and the world. So, you know, it was just a thought that I came up with, you know, about life.
A lot of people that I asked that question, have a difficulty in answering: what is life? So that’s a question that I think everybody needs to probe into, and try to figure out what this thing called life is all about, and try to live it the best that you can. You know, because we only goin’ to get one here on this earth. So I’d like to leave you as I came: in peace.
If anybody has any questions or concerns about anything, contact me at JPay: Eddie Treadwell 205017 at Alger Correctional Facility here in Michigan prisons. Have a wonderful day.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
