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A life that is meaningful, every single day, is rare in this world. Your life was a gift to you. Make it a gift to the world.- Elizabeth May, American-born Canadian activist, writer, politician (b.1954 )What is a meaningful life? What does it mean for a life to be meaningful?In the final days of your life, as you look back over your many years, will youask yourself if your life has been meaningful? Likely.What will be your answer? That depends on what you define as meaningful.For some people living through the most productive years of their lives, livinga meaningful life means having the respect of others. That could meanaccumulating as much personal fortune as possible or as many valuableobjects as you can. That's called materialism and it's prevalent in most largecities today. This kind of materialism is so common because our industries and educationsystems teach it. Money rules. He who dies with the most toys wins.Thevalues of needs of industry rule what gets taught in classrooms.It seems like sheer greed. But it's more like the leaders of industryindoctrinating their employees in the need to earn progressively greaterincome, to wear increasingly expensive, fashionable and well tailoredclothing, to buy an upscale vehicle each time, to own a house that is biggerthan needed, to have a mortgage that would have crushed their parents, tobelong to the most exclusive clubs they can.In turn, the employees teach these values to their own children. The processand value system spread exponentially. Soon everyone in theneighbourhood, the city, all cities in the country believe it. Because "that'swhat everyone believes. They all say that." Comments about the "rat race"go unheeded as whining by losers.I would like to relate two personal instances to you, from my life. The firsthas to do with my first wife. We were many years divorced when she wasdiagnosed with cancer that had metastasized through her body. She spent 15months at home, alone, thinking about her life.We separated and divorced because she adopted the feminist propaganda of the day that held that families and husbands prevented women from"reaching their full potential." Once she left me with our children to raise, sherose from resource teacher to vice principal then to principal within a fewyears. She was highly respected and recognized in her field, frequently askedto lead special events for teachers, such as college courses.
 
She made the money. She had the clothes and the car and the house. Shenever missed a child support payment.Fifteen months turned out to be a very long time to ruminate over howmeaningful her life had been. Especially living alone, with dwindling visitsfrom her own children and her one friend. She had no visits from colleagueswho once shared her values. She was no longer of value to them.She died in hospital, surrounded by medical personnel. But still alone. Aboutsix weeks earlier, in a phone conversation, she said "I made some mistakesin my marriage." She still didn't get it, that it was "our" marriage. There wasno doubt she spent most of her waking hours reviewing her life. To late to change it then.Fast forward several years to 2006 when my present wife and I decided tochange our place of residence. Knowing we wanted to leave the Canadianprovince where we lived but not knowing where, we decided to spend thenext two years researching and visiting the most likely possibilities.Using the internet and telephone, we narrowed our first choice quickly toMiramichi, New Brunswick. About all we knew about Miramichi was that ithad lots of water (rivers) flowing through it and nearby in the northern NewBrunswick hinterlands. And that its people shared the well known friendlinessof Canadian Maritimers.On our first vacation visit to Miramichi, we were pleased by the settings andvalue of properties we saw, but shocked by the people. Miramichiers wereunlike any people we had ever met in Ontario. They seemed to actually careabout strangers. When they asked how you were, they waited to hear ananswer because it mattered to them.We decided to take our second vacation visit in 2006 to Miramichi as well. The shock of meeting people remained the same.We discovered that people were more important to them than money. Though Miramichi is a relatively poor part of Canada in terms of accumulatedwealth, the people respect themselves and each other. Even, as we learned,strangers. No one can look bewildered or lost or to have a problem in TheMiramichi (as the region is known) without someone stopping to ask if theycan help.Sometimes, as New Brunswick is officially bilingual English/French, the helpercould speak little or no English, but it didn't matter. What mattered was thatsomeone apparently needed assistance. One stranger outside a libraryadvised us to look at a house for sale he thought we might like nearby--he
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Bill Allin

Thanks Jo. I hope your life is becoming more manageable.

reply04 / 06 / 2009
lerajo85

Hi Bill, it's jo here from the philippines. YOUR ARTICLE IS SOOO AMAZING.... it portrays LIVING LIFE SIMPLY and HAVE MEANING TO OUR EXISTENCE. Life is not about material things but the bearing of our existence.

reply04 / 06 / 2009
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