This Just In

(I am participating in a little internet adventure, something that I am new to, called a Blog Off.? Read about it here.? Since this contest is raising funds for the March of Dimes, my mother’s pet charity, I happily donated my fee and will be posting a weekly article in response to a given topic. A new article will appear each week on Tuesday for?the month of July, 2009.? Please feel free to comment on what I’ve written, good discussion and different viewpoints are always welcome.)

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Topic: Oprah has popularized the phrase, ?Best Life? with a series of shows centered around so-called ?experts? talking about how to have, ?the best life?.??? What is your definition of a ?best life? and how do you think you are ? or are not ? fulfilling your conception of it?

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?Best?adjective, superl. of good with better as compar.?1.?of the highest quality, excellence, or standing: the best work; the best students.? 2. most advantageous, suitable, or desirable: the best way.? 3.? largest; most: the best part of a day.

??????I find it insidious and admirable? at the same time that a talk show host would aspire to be guru of a tenent such as “Best Life”;?insidious because I am rather cynical when it comes to the commercialization of such concepts…the person espousing concepts and values usually stands to gain a profit somehow;?my belief is that if one truly has faith in?what they are endorsing, it?should?be presented?on an altruistic plane, and not on the platform of trying to sell something.???Admirable because one can hope in altruism…and who better a candidate to place your?hope in than Oprah? ?That aside…

The word “best” when applied to one’s life is subjective at best.? What is best for Oprah may not be what is best for me.? What is best for me may not apply to my neighbor, and so it goes.? Everyone has their own concept of what is “best”.? For some, simply meeting Maslow’s Stages One through Three (from the bottom of the pyramid up) is the “best life”.? In fact I think for many of us, to some degree,?this is true.? We routinely express our thanks to God, our higher power, our lucky stars or ourselves for having just these basic things in life.? Without them, there can be no basis for the concept of the “best life”, which to some is actualized through the top two tiers of the pyramid.? Enter subjectivity of the word “best”.? Some people are satisfied with the tier of the pyramid they’re on, have no desire to venture any further and consider this “The Best Life”.? Those at the higher tiers tend to consider themselves “enlightened” and to them, that is “The Best Life”.?

To put it simply…it takes all kinds of people to make the world go round.? Our lives are a journey, a work in progress; if you can be happy with what you have now in combination with what you aspire to (if anything), then you are living your “Best Life”.? Living in the present…in the moment…this ability is an unrecognized gift that most of us often do not claim.? This gift can facilitate the “Best Life” no matter where we are on our journey, or what the circumstances are.? This gift is rooted deeply in the first three tiers of that lovely lil’ pyramid I referenced a paragraph ago, if you really think about it.

I am fulfilling my concept of the “best life”.? My life is a journey in progress…I am always learning, growing, reflecting, enjoying and looking forward.? I have had my trials and tribulations, great joys and profound sorrows, with many?”in the moment” happinesses sprinkled throughout.?? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

?My “best life” is a banquet of all these experiences?at which I dine, and on the whole, life is delicious.

S.