Doc V Moyo

Life can be defined very easily by a school going child not by the enlightened. Many of us as scholars would consent that definition of life is a work in progress. The quest to define life has attracted the attention of different branches such as biology, biochemistry and astrobiology. On this article I will start by providing definitions proposed by other giants and thereafter present what life is in my philosophy.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) accept definition of life as a self –sustained chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution.

For many years physiological definition of life was “any system capable of performing a number of such function eating, metabolizing excreting, and breathing, moving growing, reproducing and responsive to external stimuli. Or a genetic definition which sees life as a system capable of evolution by natural selection.

My philosophical definition: As a multi-disciplinary figure I strongly believe that each person should define life in his /her context. Precisely my take is that if we are twenty in the house there should be twenty definitions of what life is.

However I have tried to come up with what I termed as a possible universal definition of life. On easy talks some say life is a journey. Please be careful on how you interpret this sentiment, remember language is a game, so do not be deceived on how one plays around with it.

A journey from where to where. Remember a journey is characterized by many features

• The starting point
• The starting time
• The finishing point
• The finishing time
• Possible challenges during the journey and the remedial measures.
• Support teams (giants to lean on as you go)
  Back up teams (when things go wrong)
• Small wins (smaller gains during the trip)
• The goal (the major/ final goal)

According to my understanding there is a general confusion where people would think life is simple from birth to death. There are so many things that you need to carry out before you start on this journey of life. The following should be done:

1. SWOT analysis of yourself.
2. PESTLE analysis for the macro – environment.

Identify parties that will accompany you and never fool yourself that you will take up this trip in isolation. At times your competitors are the parties who will accompany you in the journey so you need to preserve them. The most perfect parties are the smaller guys who will rise completing their journeys earlier than you. Do not be jealous allow them to grow as you do so, some of them many surpass your speed and move faster ahead of you. You need to respect and support that. What is important to you is to keep going.

Sometimes the route gets bumpy, dusty, and misty such that you have to drop your speed close to zero. Yes! You can do so, never find offence in that. The major rule of this game is never to stop unless if you are giving way to traffic ahead or one that have entered the road before you otherwise keep moving. When time and circumstances permit make it for the time lost due to the drop in speed.

Mistakes that are usually committed by these travelers are:

• Making money/ materials the absolute benefit of the trip.
• Aiming too high (set achievable goals)
• Competing with other people (travelers) be it in the same journey or parallel journeys
• Reliant on emotions than on logic
• Matching speed, operational time and cut off time is usually not adhered to.
• Divorcing God from the trip. God must be part of this whole exercise right from planning to the end. Remember whatever you do if it is small but with God in it, it is big. So God should always guide in whatever you do, do not be taken by the waves, he speaks always so listen carefully.

LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE. IT ENDS WAY BEFORE ONE’S MORTAL DEATH ESPECIALLY FOR A WELL PLANNED LIFE.

Written by:
Dr V. Moyo
Theologian & Strategist