Value of Our Lives

What value can we attach to our lives? When are we allowed to say that at the end of our lives we have lived the perfectly? What parameters should we use to measure the value of our lives?

I once had a friend who had all the all the wealth you could think of. To most men, he was the perfect definition of success. Most folks admired him and wished to have a life like his. The last days life were really miserable. I couldn't believe he was still that rich man that everyone wished to be.

The night before he took his life, he called me to his home and and this is what he had to say, "my friend, when I look back at what I have achieved, I would really be proud of myself, am not. " I just sat there and listened, he went on, talking as if not to me, but as a person recalling a long lost memory. "My friend, life is what you make it. I have a lot of wealth but am really not happy or pleased with myself I could gladly switch places with that poor beggar out there."

I couldn't believe what he was saying. He went on for many hours filling me on his regret for not having lived his life well enough. At the end of it all, he said one thing that really caught my ear. "My dear James, life is really short., live it fully, risk it all for what you love, do all that you love. Most importantly, live to invest in people. Live to help all those you can, in the ways you can. Because at the end of your life, the only thing that will forever remain in them is the memories of you and believe me boy, you will want them to think fondly of you."

With that he dismissed me saying he wanted to sleep. I left in deep thought thinking of what he had told me. The next morning, he was found dead, he overdosed his sleeping pills. He left a will behind in it he had left half of his wealth to me, the other was to go to Oakman's home for orphaned and abandoned kids.

He also left a letter for me,with only these words, "My friend I trust you will use it wisely."