The other day I was listening to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s CD entitled “You Can If You Think You Can”.  In his motivational presentation on the values of and how-to think positively, he quoted Dr. Sigmund Freud as saying the man’s quest was to endure life.  Dr. Peale, then went on to argue that life would be utterly meaningless if that was the sum total of man’s quest. He instead posited that man’s quest; his ultimate aim in life was to Master Life.  That got me to thinking about what I thought man’s or even my chief aim in life was.

Upon reflecting profoundly and with much time, I think that I would have to agree with Dr. Peale in his statement. All life, be it the nanobes,   which are thought by some to be the smallest known organism, to us humans, the highest form of life known to exist, struggle to survive against the harsh, brutal and violent forces of nature. However, in the words of Dr. Peale life would be meaningless if that was the sum total of it all.  In my view, man/human must also thrive. That is, man has to live a life that is also one of quality.  This would include such things as wealth, employment,  environmental adaptation, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social belonging.

If this is true, then maybe we can say that Mastering Life is a matter of both surviving and thriving in the harsh realities that we call life.  Just a thought…