Like most people I don’t want to die. I want to live as long as possible. I exercise, eat healthy, and undergo preventative medical protocols to maximize the probability of having a long life. One of my concerns, though, is that my approach to living a long life is similar to the desire to make my life a “good value” in a materialistic, consumer sense. For example, if I buy a toaster-oven, I want it to last a long time, a decade perhaps, as a sign that I got a “good value” and was a “smart shopper.” By living to, say, 110, I fear I will on my deathbed say something really stupid like this: “I should be proud because I managed to live to 110. I got my money’s worth over this thing we call life. I won.”
Won what?
What does living to 110 have to do with the kind of life I lived?
So as you can see, I am concerned that by seeing my life as a toaster-oven I am focusing on my lifespan in terms of quantity rather than what I should be focusing on: quality.
The mentality that living a long life is equivalent to winning is rooted in foolishness. This mentality is in truth based on a losing framework that has no foundation on a moral core.
How do I score on the Moral Core Grade Sheet?
Low, I’m afraid.
As far as morals go, I have a modicum of decency. But my default setting is to be selfish, lazy, insular, and to succumb to my unruly passions as much as I think I can get away with so that my acts of moral courage and charity are rather limited.
My moral failings hardly make me an exception. To the contrary, I suspect I’m like most people in the Morals Department, but there are some extreme traits I see in myself that should be examined unflinchingly to get to the bottom of this toaster-oven approach to life.
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