What Is Best in Life

There are competing versions of what is best in life, what life's objective should be, why we continue to live. We get them from our religious leaders, from movies, from our parents, or we hammer them out on our own.

Here are three statements that answer that question...

"To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women."

"Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values."

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

The first quote is from Conan the Barbarian, the original movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The second is from Ayn Rand.

The third is from Micah 6:8 (NIV) in the Old Testament.

Here's my question for the day - Which of these competing visions of life's meaning animates your life? More to the point, which is sustainable for not only yourself, but for society as a whole? And finally, which will continue to work for your children, and theirs?