People today are more mindful about how they are going to spend their fortunes. This is due to the global recession the world is suffering right now. International companies in the Philippines are starting to shut down its facilities based in the Philippines in response to the global recession. One of the most common reasons for doing so is to cut expenses by moving to other cheaper locations (“Financial recession and Philippines”, n.d.). People are getting paranoid due to the recession. Everybody is affected. OFW’s are not spared from the global recession; those who are not lucky enough lose their jobs abroad and have no choice but to go back here in the Philippines, and try to seek for jobs here. This adds to the unemployment rate of the Philippines (“Financial recession and Philippines”). Does this mean that nobody can have the Good life right now? Of course not!
The Good life is more than just financial security; it is something more profound than that. Most of the people would not probably know that they had the Good life not until their deaths, when they will be judged. One way of knowing is to count your blessings, not your misfortunes. The Good life is the life one chooses to live, in which the person has no regrets and in which the person carries no darkness in his or her heart and soul when he or she dies. It is a life of contentment, happiness, simplicity; living a materialistic and over-indulgent life does not guarantee the Good life.
The good life is the one chooses to live. It is a happy life with moral and ethical bounds and is commonly linked to Aristotle’s Eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is a Greek word commonly associated with happiness (“The Good life”, n.d.). If you would scrutinize the Good life, you would obviously get the words good and life. Good meaning virtuous, genuine, worthy, and satisfactory in quality and Life meaning period of animate existence of an individual. If put together, the Good life would mean the period of animate existence of an individual in a virtuous, genuine, worthy, and satisfactory in quality way.
It is hard for someone to say that he or she lived the Good life of they do not live it the way they truly choose to. If being forced to do something you do not approve of is difficult, what more if you live your life the way you do not approve of. The Good life is a genuine life that one chose to live.
Living life extravagantly and leisurely does not mean that you will automatically be living the Good life. Mike La Perruque (video interview by www.accesshollywood.com, July 1, 2009) who was Michael Jacksons’s former bodyguard says Michael Jackson did not want his children to be exposed in the media, he was protective of them. It is well known that Michael Jackson lived life extravagantly. He did his time in the limelight, and it and wasn’t just the 15 minutes of fame type; he was already famous even as a child. He was very rich yet somehow Michael Jackson did not want to have his children experience the same treatment he had.
The Good life has to be a life without regrets and without darkness in one’s heart when one dies. Although, it is possible to still have the Good life even if one has regrets at the time of their deaths; it is not possible to have the Good life if one still carries darkness or deep regret in their heart at the time of their deaths. The gravity of regret is a factor. To avoid that, it is important for everybody to know that nothing in this world is permanent. When a person lives in this world, he or she borrows everything from it. When a person leaves this world, he or she leaves everything behind and takes nothing with him or her.
Efren Peñaflorida could have had an easier life. He could have chosen not to live a life of altruism and could have just worked as a teacher to at least secure his finances, but he did not. He chose to make an organization dedicated to helping the youth and to make a change through the push-cart classroom. He chose to struggle instead and through this he won the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year (“Efren Peñaflorida”, n.d.).
Efren Peñaflorida did not desire to live lavishly; he wants to help other people. Efren Peñaflorida is contented with his life. For him, there was no greater award than being able to help children and inspire them. Nobody will be able to do what he did if they are not contented with their living because they would only desire more.
“Contentment is the experience of satisfaction and being at ease in one’s situation.” (“Contentment”, n.d., paragraph 1). The Good life is a contented life. It is the most important factor of the Good life; without contentment, one cannot have the Good life. This is because not being contented leads to desires and these desire lead to greed. If you are contented with your life, then that means you have no regrets, desires, and hatred; if you are contented with your life, you appreciate it and see its beauty and importance.
The Good life is a life of happiness. You cannot say that you had the Good life if you are not happy with it; happy in a good way, in a virtuous way. True happiness does not lead to destruction. This is the happiness people must pursue.
So far, the Good life has been defined for what it is; this time, it will be defined by what it is not. In order to understand it better, it will be made clear that not everything that seems to be fun is good and that everything too much is bad.
Take Charles Dickens' novella as an example. The story of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens tells that wealth cannot bring happiness alone. Even though Ebenezer Scrooge of the A Christmas Carol was a wealthy man who could buy anything he wanted, he was miserable. He was not happy with his life nor did he find his life goof in spite of all his riches. Something was missing in his life and the three ghost of Christmas made him realize what it was. In the end, he was a completely different man; he had become a man of overflowing generosity and kindness and through this he finally saw what happiness really meant. (“A Christmas Carol”, n.d.) In his death, Mr. Scrooge probably said that he was still able to live a good life.
Being wealthy does not ensure happiness. The joy of materials only last until it starts to lose its value. The Good life is not a materialistic life. It cannot be bought; it has to be done. It is not a materialistic life because the more one posses, the greedier one becomes, the harder it is for one to let go of things. People should not be happy of their possessions, they should be happy of what they could to with it. The real joy of wealth is through sharing it with others and using it for good, not keeping it all for one’s self.
Another story, this time taken from the bible, tells that a life of over-indulgence is not the Good life. In the story of the prodigal son, the younger son thought he could enjoy life by over-indulging all his desires. He wasted the fortune that his father gave him, thinking that pleasuring himself would give him happiness. The younger son spent all his money and soon was left with nothing. Lucky for him his father still accepted him back. (“The Prodigal son”, n.d.)
The good life is not an over-indulgent life. Over-indulgence only leads a person into self-destruction and eventually this destruction will emanate from him or her to others. If a person does not know when to stop, if he or she does not know when enough is enough, then he or she will never find true happiness.
Viewing holistically what have been stated in this essay, the Good life is an unregreted life. It is a life worth living. It is not limited to the wealthy but being rich would not hurt as well. Ultimately, it is the unregreted, happy, and contented existence of a person with a good ending; it does not matter how the person starts it, mess it up in the middle or almost completely annihilate it after that, what matters most is how the person ends it.
Reference:
Hubpages.com (n.d.) Financial Recession and its effects in the Philippines. Retrieved March 31, 2010, http://hubpages.com/hub/Financial-Recession-and-Its-Effects-in-the-Philippines
Hubpages.com (n.d.) Financial Recession and its effects in the Philippines. Retrieved March 31, 2010, http://hubpages.com/hub/Financial-Recession-and-Its-Effects-in-the-Philippines
Wikipedia.org (n.d.) The Good life. Retrieved March 31, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_good_life
en.wikipilipinas.org (n.d.) Efren Peñaflorida. Retrieved March 31, 2010,
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Efren_Peñaflorida%2C_Jr.
Wikipedia.org (n.d.) Contentment. Retrieved March 31, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contentment
Wikipedia.org (n.d.) A Christmas Carol. Retrieved March 31, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol
christianity.about.com (n.d.) The Prodigal son (from the bible: Luke 15:11-32). Retrieved March 31, 2010, http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/p/prodigalson.htm
sparred? spared?
ReplyDeleteis "global" a proper noun?
you don't need to include the parenthetical citation on the list of references. the parenthetical citations are the ones that should be found within the text.
This is the happiness people must pursuit. -- pursuit? that's a noun. you need the verb.
When a person lives this world -- you're missing a preposition somewhere here
So far, the Good life has been defined for what it is; this time, it will be defined by what it is not. In order to understand it better, it will be made clear what not everything that seems to be fun is good and that everything too much is bad. -- this paragraph is a bit awkward. the transition could be a little smoother and less obvious.
good definition.
Mike La Perruque (personal interview, July 1, 2009) who was Michael Jacksons’s... -- jerome, if you do it like this, it suggests that YOU inteviewed MIKE. did you? :)
30 seconds of fame -- the idiom is 15 minutes of fame
ok. updated it,except some (the transition part, could think of anything).
ReplyDeleteYour paragraph 11 and 12 lacks transition.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, this is a good read. :)
good definition essay! The author gave more than enough examples so the readers could better understand. Just lacking smoothness in the transitions and subject verb agreement. But overall, this is one well-written essay! Good job! :)
ReplyDeleteThx! :D
ReplyDelete