Being Alive and Living

Most of us probably already know the difference between being alive and living. But since we are so busy focusing on things that are obviously the reason we constantly forget the deeper meaning of these concepts, being reminded from time to time helps a lot.

We might have different interpretations especially about small details on how we view the concepts of just being alive and actually living. But I strongly think that no matter how varied our opinions and ideas are, they can be stitched together and blend well because they have so many similarities and connections among them, which will actually lead to one huge point.

Last night, I watched the fourteenth episode of American Dad's third season, and this particular episode kinda made me realize the distinction between being alive and living.

The family got a new dog and apparently they enjoyed it's company and simply just how adorable the dog was. Unfortunately, while they were playing with the dog one day, it got into an accident bringing it into a life-or-death situation. The dog's body basically took a somewhat 90% brutal damage and what was making it alive was just this particular pumping machine of some sort. Out of desperation, the dad brought it into a weird psycho quack doctor or whatever and asked her to do anything she could to bring the dog to an "almost normal" state again.

After the surreal and very strange operation, the dog was back to its feet. However, it looked absolutely terrifying. Random materials like a baseball glove, a weird plastic frog leg, and whatnot were attached to its body like it was absolutely unplanned. Looking at it made me really queasy, even if it was cartoons. It was like an undead -- an animal zombie.

At that point, it made me think that what good is the dog's life if it can no longer normally walk, run, bark,  snarl, roll over, or just about any other things that dogs do.

Similarly for us humans, what good is our lives if we don't do the things that we are supposed to do? What good is it if we don't do what we want and love to do? Yes, we can say that we are alive, we breathe, and our bodies move. But it takes a whole lot to live.

And so I say, we must live the life we want to. Live our dreams. Live happy and healthy ones. Live for ourselves and for the people that we love.

I know this is cliché but I'm gonna say it anyway. Life is too short to be waiting for something to happen. Make it happen right now because we won't realize that life is short unless we no longer have much time. We all know this but admit it, we always forget. That's why this is a reminder.

Live the life you love, love the life you live. xx