Author: Laurent Grenier


In brief, my book A REASON FOR LIVING is the product of a
sustained effort to answer in the most enlightening and
inspiring way this single question: Why live? I started to ask
myself that question about thirty years ago after my diving
accident, which left the husky and lusty teenage athlete that I
was a near quadriplegic. What had given meaning to my life until
then had become largely impossible. As a result, my life seemed
absurd.

“Seemed” is the operative word here. Many years of reflection
and study have taught me that the lack of meaning is always a
lack of wisdom. Everything I have learned and that has turned
the bitter and suicidal young man that I was into a mature and
serene life lover is what I impart to my reader.

Listed below are some of the major points in my book:

1. There can be no contentment without acceptance of the limits
of reality, within which excellence and joy are possible, but
not perfection and infinite happiness. Furthermore, there can be
no contentment without the courage to pursue excellence and joy
persistently, against failures and misfortunes.

Above all, our minds are at our command and determine our moods.
Independently of circumstances and results, contentment follows
from positive thinking and positive action – though admittedly
it is not possible without circumstances and results being at
least favorable enough to permit thinking and action.

2. In the pursuit of excellence and joy, the awareness of our
adaptability is paramount. Change, and sometimes extensive and
traumatic change, is part and parcel of life. Fortunately, we
are able to adapt to this change. That is, the favorable habits
we develop within relatively stable circumstances – for example
eating, working, or dating habits that are conducive to our
happiness – do not truly define the individuals we are. What
does define them so is our innate ability to acquire favorable
habits whatever the circumstances (provided the latter are not
so bad that they cannot be turned to good account). In a word,
we are by nature adaptable, just as the world is by nature
changeable.

3. The one fact that differentiates life from infinite bliss is
the struggle that is required of the living to achieve
satisfaction, which is never complete and permanent. We can
either sorrow over that fact or rejoice at it. Why rejoice?
because with the struggle comes merit, and merit is a joyful
emotion that any valiant soul knows intimately and values
immensely.

4. Just as we cannot build a house without first securing a
solid foundation, we cannot achieve fulfillment without first
ensuring that our body is sound, thanks to a healthy diet and
lifestyle.

5. To be free to do what we please is a precious right that we
have as members of a liberal society. This right comes with a
corresponding duty: to respect that right in others. Indeed, we
are free to do what we please if what we please is not to
make our fellow creatures suffer. Mutual respect is the sine qua
non of collective harmony. It is the chief principle behind
human justice.

The right to freedom, within the liberal society, also means
that we are free to believe what we please. No institutionalized
ideology is imposed on us besides the basic moral principle
dictating that we respect one another so that society, however
liberal, remains sufficiently ordered to be operational. The
reverse of order is chaos, which only knows the law of the
jungle: dog eat dog.

Now, the right to believe what we please comes with a
corresponding duty: to think carefully to define our own
ideology according to which we see and do things in a certain
way. Again, the only imposition is the basic moral principle
dictating that we respect one another.

6. Within the context of my own ideology, which I cannot impose,
but only propose, love is the essence of life, its essential
purpose. It includes the love of ourselves, which consists in
promoting our own life. This love is instinctive and
foundational; it is instrumental in the love of others, as we
feel solidarity with them.

At a deeper level, love extends to that of everything. It
proceeds from the divine principle behind the universe, thanks
to which everything is the way it is, capable of being and
better still, within certain limits, capable of flourishing.
Like this principle, these limits can be ascertained through
their obvious manifestations, but never explained. Ultimately,
the universe and our relative knowledge of it are founded on a
fathomless mystery.