ISABEL BERGE

Value of life

How do we value lives? In money? In possessions? In experiences? In the people left behind after you’re gone? Is it right to give compensation money to the families of victims of terror, shootings and other tragedies? Most important of all, what makes life valuable to us?

 Amanda Ripley wrote an article published in Time magazine after 9/11 talking about the compensation given to the families of the approximately 3000 people who were killed in the devastating attack of the twin towers. This program made it so the families got economic support in order not to lay another burden on them by giving them economic struggles on top of the emotional struggles they all went through, the problem however, is that this was not the way it was perceived by the families. Considering the difference of compensation given to different families, people saw it as “their loved one is worth more than my loved one” and saw it as a value of what the person was worth.

 My feelings about the compensation are mixed. I think it was a good solution with good intentions , only it didn’t work out as intended. The families also got a “pain and suffering” compensation of 50 000 dollars for the spouse and the same amount for each child, and that’s what I disagree with. In my opinion even calling it “pain and suffering” compensation suggests that you’re trying to compensate for emotional loss with money, something I mean you can’t do with money. I think a better solution than to offer money for suffering would be to offer the victims who need and want it free therapy. That way you would also be sure the money was used in a better way than it might be if it’s just handed out. 

What, on the other hand, makes life lose it’s value for us personally? In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet we hear the story of a young man who’s lost all will to live. In his super famous “to be or not to be” (Shakespeare, 47) soliloquy he states that  the only thing keeping any of us wanting to live is the fear of what comes after death (Shakespeare, 48). He is debating in the soliloquy “whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against the sea and by opposing them” (Shakespeare, 47), and you can tell he’s struggling with what to do in this difficult situation. He is wondering if the best thing is to stay alive and handle all the struggles that are thrown at him in life, or if he should end his suffering and take his life.

For most of my life I’ve been struggling with anxiety, especially health and death anxiety. I still have days where I just feel miserable and wonder why I do this, but I choose to see it in another way. You’re only afraid if you have something to lose, so the reason death scares me is because I love life too much. Unlike Hamlet who was afraid of what would happen after he’s dead and was scared he’s keep suffering after death, I’m simply afraid of losing my life, and the idea that there is something after death is the one thing that makes me feel better about death. Don’t believe for a second that the only thing keeping people wanting to live is out of fear of that happens next. I have so many things keeping me alive and wanting to stay alive. I have my family, my friends and activities I love that I would hate having to give up. I have film, reading, writing, travelling and so many other things I love doing. As Sam Berns, Roger Ebert and Steve Jobs say, you need to find something in life that you love to do!

Especially Berns and Ebert had big physical struggles throughout their lives. Ebert who used to be a host of a TV show doing movie reviews and who lived by talking about movies got cancer and ended up losing the ability to eat, drink and worst of all, the ability to speak .

 Berns was born with a very rare disease called Progeria, which is a protein in his body that aged and destroyed his cells at a faster pace than normal, that for example made him unable to gain weight.

Both of these people had huge physical disabilities in their lives that would normally stop them from doing what they loved, yet neither would let their disabilities hinder them. Instead of talking about movies on TV, Ebert would write movie reviews on a blog. When he was writing, there were no difference between him and the other critics. There were no difference between his current self and his past self. He said in the interview with reporter Chris Jones “When I’m writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be” (Jones, 18). Through his blog he manages to keep his unspoken voice.

Berns whose dream was to play the snare drum in his High School marching band, but because he was only 10 pounds heavier than the drum he couldn’t. He refused to let that be the reason he couldn’t play, so his family worked with an engineer and designed a special harness so he would be able to play it in the marching band. In his TedTalk in 2013 he said “Nothing was going to stop me from playing snare drum with the marching band during the halftime show”. (Berns, 1:19) In another interview done in 2012 he was asked what the most important thing anyone could know about him and the simple answer “I have a very happy life” (Berns, 2:28) was the response Berns gave.

They could both have chosen to give up and let their disabilities be obstacles getting in the way of what they wanted, but refused to. They both found other ways they could follow their passions. I agree 100% with this mindset. If you find what you love more than anything, you can usually find other ways of doing that. If there is a way, you will find it, and it usually is. In a TedTalk from 2013 Berns stated “I don’t think about these obstacles all the time, and I’m able to overcome most of them anyway.” (Berns, 2:44). It’s easy to feel defeated if you can’t do something you want or lose ability to do something you love, and that’s why I admire Ebert and Berns who worked around their obstacles to do what they love. They both say they don’t want people to feel sorry for them and they both use a similar quote telling how happy they are (Jones, 27) (Berns, 2:28). I think having something you love to do gives life meaning and I’m sure it raises the emotional value of life.

So what does actually give a life value? It’s an impossible question to answer, because we all have different answers. We can say happiness gives life emotional value, but even that would be different for everyone.  We could say a lawyer has more financial value than a teacher, yet the teacher might have a way happier life and have a much larger emotional value. At least for me, these two meanings of value has to be separate. For me, what gives life value is the people around me, film, travelling and many other things I love, for you it might be something completely different. I would at least say that, in some way, every life has value.

Work Cited

Berns, Sam. “My Philosophy For a Happy Life” TedTalk, 12.13.2013

Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36m1o-tM05g

Jones, Chris. “Roger Ebert; The essential man” Originally published in Esquire Magazine 02.16.2010, found in Expository Reading and Writing Student Reader.

Ripley, Amanda. “What is a life worth?” Originally published in Time Magazine 11.11.2002

Found in Expository Reading and Writing Student Reader

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Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Act III Scene i, 1603

Found in Expository Reading and Writing Student Reader

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