On life (149) -”Between Brackets” – 20/11/2016

   How puzzling life is! Indeed it is. The riddle of life has not been unraveled save to very few people who got to heed the message: “Beware! You impart meaning on days, hours, and seconds. Life is a journey which you should end in success, not in failure.”

   The great dramatist Tawfiq al-Hakim said, “Life can only be confronted if it is not considered a tragedy.” Some people, however, consider life a tragedy. Meanwhile, others realize its value and strive to perform their roles all through. So, what do you think your life is like? Your role and action will be determined according to the way you answer this question.

   Life is not a tragedy. It is God’s gift: for it is a path to immortality. So make it a unique experience by filling it with good deeds. A sage maintains that, “Life is an inscription between brackets, the first is man’s birth and the second his death. He has to fill the interval between them with goodness. If he cannot, then he should not leave pains in anybody’s life.”

   Life never stops, which is why a wise man compared it to driving a bicycle: in order to maintain your balance, you should continue peddling. Along with the continuous movement, you should acquire more profound ideas and vision so as to discover the important issues which you have not headed, and leave out the trivial ones that are unworthy of your attention. Only then, you will get to know that whatever you thought was hectic was actually comfortable, and the opposite is true. Thus, you grow, and your vision, ideas, and feelings develop.

   Life is too short to learn all the lessons imparted by others’ experiences. So start where others end. You cannot seclude yourself from others, which is why people go through common feelings, such as pain, sorrow, and happiness. Sometimes, they succeed; sometimes, they fail. Yet, the greatest of all is whoever learns the meaning of life, believes in its importance and worth, thereby leaving an everlasting impact and realizing many of humanity’s dreams.

General Bishop

Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center