A Life Worth Living
by
William F. Giruzzi
The purpose of this book is broad and bold. This book is about a new vision for human beings and our place in the world. This book is about the purpose of our lives. This book is about a new paradigm. Paradigm? I sometimes notice people cringe and stop listening when they hear the word paradigm. While it may sound “neo-business,” a paradigm is simply a set of assumptions or concepts that constitute a way of viewing reality. Thus, Newtonian physics is a paradigm. Quantum physics is a paradigm. The Copernican view of the universe, the Ptolemaic view, the Freudian view of psychology, the Jungian; all of these are paradigms. They all represent a set of concepts and assumptions that constitute a way of viewing and understanding what’s happening in reality. Still, the term “paradigm” has become overused and misunderstood. This has led some to mistrust the term. They believe it implies that something isn’t actually happening out here in the “real world,” that “it’s all in your head.” Not the case. An apple really does fall from a tree; there really is an electromagnetic wave making it to your television resulting in a picture. If you smash your car into a wall, there will be consequences. The assumptions of quantum physics do, however, make something different available to physicists than the assumptions of Newtonian physics. Newtonian physics led to one level of understanding of how the universe works, while quantum physics is leading to a deeper level of understanding. Each has created a different view of what’s happening in reality.
Here’s a simple example to further demonstrate the idea of a paradigm. Below there are two points, A and B. Draw this diagram on a separate sheet of paper, and then with a pen or pencil, connect points A and B.
A. B.
If you are like most people who have completed this exercise, you connected points A and B with a straight line.Connecting the points with a straight line was likely automatic. You probably didn’t even stop to consider how I wanted the points connected. In fact, you may have imagined a straight line between the two points even before I asked you to connect them. If you think about it, there are actually an infinite number of ways to connect points A and B.
It’s not that the assumption influencing your thinking, in this case something like, “the shortest distance between two points is a straight line,” isn’t true. It’s that in making the choice to draw a straight line between points A and B, you were likely not even aware you were being guided by an underlying assumption. Paradigms are so powerful they cause people to take particular actions without even realizing an assumption is guiding, even dictating or limiting, their actions. Thus, when I say connect the points; most people automatically do so with a straight line. That’s the power of a paradigm.
Paradigms are not just formal models found in physics and math. Paradigms influence how we think about and live every aspect of our lives. We have paradigms that influence how we are in our intimate relationships, how we parent, how we choose a mate, and how we work. We have a paradigm of how to live.
Consider the following question: “Which do you think is more likely to happen? A) Someday we will be living on Mars, or B) someday we will develop a way of living on this planet where all people are fulfilled.” Without fail, all that I’ve asked say living on Mars. People have such a strong faith and belief in our ability to invent things, to invent technology, and to discover the knowledge required for us to invent these innovations. But when it comes to discovering knowledge of how people can live fulfilling, healthy, happy lives, people throw their hands up in frustration and helplessness. “There is no such knowledge. People are all so different, how could there be knowledge applicable to all?” Therein lies the limitation of the paradigm we live in. We’ve come to believe that, because we haven’t ever found knowledge of how to live so it works for all people, the knowledge doesn’t exist. I am not talking about a utopia where there is no tragedy, no disagreement, where nothing bad happens, and where everyone is walking around being nice to each other. I am talking about a way to live where real people are living real lives in a more fulfilling way.
I am talking about a life worth living.
Are you living ‘a life worth living?’
Each of us has to answer that question for ourselves, and if your answer is “Yes, I am,” you’ll get no argument from me. The way we live is not some horrible atrocity from which I am going to save you. If your answer is “No,” I caution you from the beginning, this book will not give you a laundry list of things to do to make your life better. This book aims to do something more powerful than that. This book is going to cause you to see life, to see your life, in a different light. It’s going to give you a different view of life. Now, if you think it should do more than that, I invite you to recall my simple ‘A to B’ exercise. The number of pathways from A to B is limitless, yet your action was limited to one quick, automatic choice. This limitation did not exist in reality. It existed only in your mind. These same limitations of mind exist in how you live your life. Now, are the pathways from where you are to where you want to be limitless? I don’t know, but there are certainly more than you perceive. If you are suffering, struggling or otherwise frustrated trying to live a fulfilling life – a life worth living – you are doing so unnecessarily. It is not necessary for me to give you new actions. It is only necessary for you to see. By the end of this book you’ll have a new vision of life, and you’ll have a new vision of yourself.
Life is a wonder and it’s time for you to see.