Life is not Objectively a Blessing. As the Old Saying Goes, It is What You Make It.

Life is not objectively a blessing or a curse; whether it is the former or the latter is completely subjective. Ultimately life is what you make it.

I heard this today listening to Dennis Prager on the radio. It was in the context of a discussion about why it is deficiency in purpose that causes people to turn to addition, whether it be to drugs or alcohol. A caller justified his use on the grounds that, whether it makes him a bad person or not, he sees life as somewhat of a curse. Thus he lives it day to day and uses drugs to escape the residual pain. It was in response to this that Prager commented that the opinion that life is a curse does not make the guy a bad person; rather, no person can claim that life is objectively a blessing. IT is filled with ambiguous and negative events. Whether we make the ambiguous events positive experiences in one way or another, and whether we learn to put the negative events aside is something that is solely up to us. Further, it is our choice whether or not to dwell on positive happenings in life. Thus life, with its mixture of good an bad for everyone, is never objectively a blessing. It is what you chose to make it.

Prager is truly an insightful guy; at the very least he took something that so many others have said and made it substantially more clear.