I was jogging on the treadmill, mind blank, when I glanced at the wall in front of me. It was full of posters from the UFC, but one part caught my eye. In the middle of all these posters, there was a large white text which read “Live On”.
“What does Live On mean?“, I asked myself, until I realized that it was just a part of “Live on pay-per-view” as this was a promotional poster.
That phrase stuck with me for the rest of the day as I pondered upon life and death. Just the previous day, a family friend passed away due to cancer. It was surprisingly quick: barely two months ago, she was admitted to the hospital. She never came back from there.
This brought back all the thoughts and feelings I had more than two years ago when my sister died of cancer as well. Their experiences were very similar too. They had to endure constant pain while their lungs got compromised to the point where there is not enough oxygen in their blood. Their hearts tried valiantly to save the body, but in its efforts, burned itself out.
It was agonizing to lose a loved one due to something as unfair as a disease. My sister and our friend suffered through horrible pain, but they deserved none of it. They didn’t smoke, they didn’t abuse their bodies through vices, but still they got ill. Their young children still needed them.
Amidst all that injustice, it feels like they wanted us to remember those two words that I saw.
Live on.
That’s the only thing those of us who are left behind can do. There is nowhere else to go but to move forward through time and through life.
If they had a choice, I am sure they wanted to live. They wanted to move forward even though it is hard. They knew that we will always encounter problems and suffering as we move on. And so it would be a great disservice to them if we, who are still in this life, stop moving. If we throw in the towel at the first sign of hardship, if we decide that it is no longer worth it.
It is only worth it if we continue moving forward.
I know that living in this world is not easy. No matter how much success we attain, the problems just doesn’t seem to go away. They just take a different form. And while we experience times of peace and happiness, we also experience periods of suffering and despair.
In the words of Jordan Peterson, life is tragic and difficult for everyone (not just for you). Constant contact with this tragedy can make us bitter and resentful at life. To prevent that, we need to have a reason that will get us out of bed on a terrible day. And this reason can only be defined by you, a reason that makes life bearable even in the direst of circumstances. This can be found in responsibility: being responsible for yourself, then your loved ones, and finally for your community.
In the end, it is the duty of the living to continue on. To wake up early, to labor for our food, and to rest at the end of the day. In a way, we are no different from animals. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle, whether you are a predator or prey.
When the sun rises, you run.