Seven Words to Live By

Suppose you could offer one word of advice to a young person living in the year 2000. One word! What would it be?

- John W. Gardner

Over the past few years I have been asking this question of many friends, and the answers have been remarkably consistent. Three words are almost universally at the top of the list.

The most frequently mentioned word is ‘Live’. It is a sound choice for the First Maxim. If you have in mind Schweitzer’s “reverence for life”, and a biologist’s sense of the complexity and wonder of the life process, you will understand the breadth and depth of the word.

In Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town, a young woman dies and discovers that she has the opportunity to live one day of her life over again. She chooses her 12th birthday. When the day begins, her first reaction is an intense desire to savour every moment. “I can’t look at everything hard enough,” she says. Then, to her sorrow, she sees that the members of her family are not experiencing life with any intensity. In desperation, she says to her mother, “Let’s look at one another!” And later: “Oh, Earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you! Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?” Most people waste life. The First Maxim says, “Live, be aware, experience, grow”.