I have heard a lot of debate about life. what is life, how is it measured, when does it start, when does it end. I have been thinking about my own life too. there have been many times, many times when I didn’t want it to go on, when I wanted it to stop. recently I stood at the top of a bridge and looked down and there I saw my life’s end as clear as though it had happened only a minute ago. thinking on this I am now beginning to understand that life is best measured by its opposite. death. just like darkness is measured by exactly the same measure as its opposite … it has no real specific measure of its own … it is measured by the absence of its opposite, light.  what is there in life that there is not in death. there is growth, there is contribution, there is feeling, there is interaction, there is activity of some sort that is, even at its most basic level, holding on. death is the total nonexistence of these. death is totally surrendered to decomposition, to having let go, to ‘non’ growth, interaction, feeling, contribution … because death absorbs these completely. everything that is alive grows, and everything that grows is never independent of other life … from the moment of conception … life explodes in learning, development, interaction, struggle, relationship, success, failure and effort. all of life. sometimes I wonder if we have become too selfish to truly understand the significance of life. sometimes I wonder if our individualistic sense of ‘entitlement’ has blinded us to the value of life. sometimes I wonder if we have not lost our way in demanding … our way … our rights …