Why is it so hard to appreciate life?
Against so much indifference, life is defenseless
The fact that it is apparently so difficult to appreciate life is tragic, says Jan Warndorff.
On March 22, 2016, Sebastien Bellin was hit by the bombing at Zaventem Airport. Bleeding profusely, the former Belgian basketball star lay on the floor and thought he was going to die. But he survived, and in an interview with the weekly Humo, in retrospect, he calls that attack “a gift”, and wishes everyone to approach death “down to a millimeter” one day in life. Because, he explains, only then do you truly discover the value of life.
Something similar happened to Volkskrant journalist Fokke Obbema, who almost died of a cardiac arrest in 2017 and only then became seriously interested in 'the meaning of life'. Coincidentally, this happened on April 1, the day on which Philosophy Month begins every year — with this year's theme “defenseless and valuable”. And that therefore appears to apply directly to life itself. As valuable as it is — lose your life and you lose everything — we usually count on it without looking back, and against that indifference, life is defenseless.
