Discussion How can life be a "gift"?

[top_cat]

I've gotten into /r/antinatalism and it seems that the negatives of life FAR outweigh the positives. What's so great about being alive.

 

[WhiteRabbit]

Lots of people enjoy their lives. Yes, the world can be harsh and unfair, but it can also be amazing and beautiful.

Some people choose to roll with the punches and others choose to opt out. Some people are lucky and some aren't. Tale as old as time.

 

[Onomotopoeia]

It's really all about your perspective. On ss you are very likely to find most agree with you at least on a personal level. The thing is though life builds different people. Some people believe in all their heart that life is a gift, many consider it more positive than its absence.

Many people experience joy, some require less engagement than others to get there but generally speaking most people do believe life to be a gift. It is why suicide has such a grim outlook as most people cant even comprehend how that would be an option. It's why it's often associated with mental illness, and while sometimes that can be true, it's not always.

If I woke up tomorrow with some new strange ability to experience joy even I might change my mind. I think we are the minority and even in my mindsight I can see what the appeal might be, if functioned on a spectrum that allowed joy.

 

[Sickman75]

Some are blessed with great talents and skills.
So they use them in either helping people or making a shit ton of money. It's a gift that only you can make the choices to be happy or not with. Whatever those gifts are determined by you nobody else can say what they are for you. Maybe you haven't stumbled upon them just yet or maybe you recognized it along time ago. Free will, choice is yours.

 

[Xaphous]

That's why even if I got a girlfriend which I never had at least I would never reproduce because I'm not a selfish bastard.

 

[Jake.123]

I think maybe people who see life as a gift are happy they are alive because they didnt get the choice and they enjoy life. While alot of other people including me see life as a curse almost as we never got the choice either but have either been dealt a bad hand or our life is unenjoyable for what ever reason.

 

[snowman626]

the negatives of life FAR outweigh the positives. What's so great about being alive.

But I guess you have to try to think differently in order to enjoy life. Some people say that life isn't about avoiding the rain but to learn to dance in it. Some people are able to see positive in negative spaces, so for them on the outside it looks like it's a shitty life 24/7, they are able to find gratitute in tiny little spaces and focus on that. Vice versa is true thats why you see rich and famous people kill themselves

 

[Gray Wounds]

It can be a gift for those who are actually blessed with a wonderful flow of things. I've seen lots of them enjoying their own ways in their own ways of enjoying it.

 

[JanekDeadReynolds]

In this context a gift is something which is earned with little or no effort, so in that regard life is exactly that.

Plenty of people get shit gifts on their birthday or at whichever religious event they observe.

I wonder if I can still ask my parents for my life's receipt.