"Life's too short not to live it up!"

Someone commented:

"What the heck!
Why bother being picky about what you eat and drink?
Life's too short not to live it up!"

The above is the life philosphy of many.

The statement, "Life's too short not to live it up!" may be understood in the positive or negative sense. That acquaintance of mine who made the above statement meant it in the latter sense. In his younger days, he had a major illness that nearly killed him. Hence, it is understandable why he said what he did. Yet, he knows little about the dangers of having such a philosophy in his life.

On the one hand it is true that life is temporal.

On the other, life can be long too as far as our days on this planet are concerned. It depends on what is meant by live it up--your life values (or, for that matter, lack of life values) invariably determine the kind of life you will lead. It also depends on what you want to accomplish in life. A person with no goals in life usually ends up achieving little, if any thing. He becomes bored and lifeless, ready to die early. Whereas a person who knows what he wants in life remains active and this very fact often keeps him energetic and on the move, which by itself prolongs his life, for he is never bored with life itself. He plans his days, charts his meals and orders his actions carefully in order to optimize and lengthen his lifetime so as to fulfil the highly-esteemed purpose he has in his life. All this, of course, is relative in different individuals.

How you look at life, to a large extent, determines what kind of person you will be and the outcome of your life. This is because our worldview--particularly when cast in the light of eternity--often governs your actions. Hence, how you view your life and how you live it is what really matters. This includes what you eat and drink.

I believe that life is to be enjoyed, not endured, but only in the light of living it to the fullest of meaning, and only when we are true to the purpose for which we are meant to live this life.

We should, therefore, exercise care in whatever we partake of, if we want to live life to the fullest. We should not "just eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die (as though they is no sense of responsibility whatsoever)." Lest we should short-change our own lives, let's take good care when it comes to what we consume.

What saith ye?