Carpe Diem
by Darrin Coe

We as a collective populace have been instructed throughout our history to engage in such lifestyles that would allow us to “make everyday a masterpiece” of living, or to “suck the marrow out of the bones of life.” Thoreau warns against living life in “quiet desperation”.

What does all this living life to it’s fullest stuff mean? How do we know we’re “sucking the marrow out of the bones of life”? Even Jesus Christ said “I’ve come that they may have life and life more abundantly.” Do the vast majority of us feel we’re living life abundantly?

Pop culture seems to want us to believe that living life fully indicates that we somehow must live life on “the edge”; if we’re not surfing big waves, engaging in extreme mountain biking, or burying the speedometer in our cars and living based on some testosterone induced adrenaline addiction then we’re not “living”.

Sonny Barger the most influential Hell’s Angel to date, would have us believe that to truly be alive you must live outside the confines of society and law, standing against “the man”. I don’t believe these examples and messages give any level of truth to what it means to really live life to it’s fullest; they are popular iconoclastic mythology.

Instead, let me suggest to you that the truly well lived life is a life that pursues purpose with passion, engaging one’s talents, and skills to the fulfillment of self and the service of others. I think when Thoreau spoke of living lives of quiet desperation he was referring to a life with no purpose, in which the flame of passion had been extinguished. He was referring to a life unengaged in pursuing, and developing talents, gifts, and skills. A well lived life may never take you to the top of Denali but it may take you to the depths of perseverance as you try to create the perfect molding for a bookshelf or lead you to doggedly pursue that 2000lb total lift, or perhaps your are driven to ever more complex forms of stitching and sewing which creates beauty and wonder in the eyes of others.

A life that is lacking is not about money, or power, or adrenaline, it is about purpose and passion. An abundant life is that life that has purpose, which is pursued with passion and manifested through talents, gifts, and skills.

Darrin F. Coe holds a master's degree in professional psychology and has been published all over the net. He is editor of The Darrin Coe Ezine, "The most value-laden ezine on the net" and author of "The Internet Consumer Exposed" available at
http://www.consumer-thinking.com/exposed1.
He operate Consumer Thinking.com at http://www.consumer-thinking.com