An interesting memory from my childhood that I treasure is that of making small bracelets using beads and string. The beads were usually of different colours and sizes. Yet, when I had completed my task, the piece of jewellery I created was something that always looked complete. It may have had a strange appearance, and included colours that usually did not mix. Regardless of this, the final product was always wearable and something that I was proud of making.
Life has a way of stringing experiences and events together in a seemingly random way. There are battles that we are forced to fight for no apparent reason, and successes that we receive without the struggles that they merit. This randomness is what makes life exciting and beautiful. It makes life something to be experienced and not survived.
However, this very randomness can also make life unfair. Chaos is an injustice that comes from all things that lack a pattern. In our world, there is chaos and disparity everywhere we turn.
So, how do we thrive in a place where every rule has an exception, and where reality can be shaped by nothing more than the flap of a butterfly’s wings?
There is one thing that connects everything that lives. There is one thing that can battle the implications of a random world. This is love.
Love is an extremely abstract concept. It is difficult to define, but can be expressed in many different ways. When this beautiful thing is changed from a concept or an emotion into a perspective, a way in which you see the world, it can transform the future of humanity. Love is what gives hope to the victims of life’s randomness.
Recently, I discovered the story of Kevin Hines – a survivor of suicide. When Kevin Hines was 19 years old, he jumped from the Golden Gate bridge in an attempt to end his life. Later, he would state that the first thought he had after jumping was that he had made a terrible mistake. As he struggled to stay afloat in the water, a miraculous thing occurred. A sea lion swam up to him and began to bump against him in order to try and keep him afloat. Eventually, with the help of the sea lion, he was able to save himself. Since this event, Kevin Hines has grown and healed. He now educates people on mental health and works towards the prevention of suicide.
Life’s randomness was unfair enough to lead a young man to the edge of a bridge. Life’s randomness also brought a sea lion to his rescue. This story, however, does not just highlight what life is. It shows that our will, our perseverance and our hope all accumulate into something more powerful than our experiences – our love for life. Hines did not just survive, he did not just heal. He chose to dedicate the rest of his life to people who are struggling in the same way that he did. He chose not to just survive, but to fall in love with the world and to help others do so too.
As young people, we may suffer and we may grow. We may fall, and we may endure. In all that we may experience, in all that life brings and takes, our constant must always be love. To love ourselves, to love others, and to love life might prove to be the only difference between just surviving and truly living.
