What makes a life valid?

And this is the question that I am struggling with and that I pose to you. Is one life more valid than another? And if so, how do you measure the validity of a life? This question came to my mind in a conversation I was having with Matt on the drive to Tegucigalpa for a day in the first world here in Honduras. As I started thinking out loud about what I will do when I return to the United States, I started to realize that I have no clue what I want to do. I want to chose something and do something that will make my life valuable and used and valid. But how do I measure that? Is it by what I have done—the actions, the amount of people I have impacted, or the sincerity with which I have impacted them, or none of this?

I look at the life of a man named Chico here. He owns a pulperia around the corner and he is married with a son and a daughter. He works at the Church and is in charge of hooking up all the speakers and electronics for mass. He also has a television show once a week that broadcasts local going ons, a kids’ story, and some other odd bits and pieces. He has probably never left Honduras and probably has no plans of the sort. And I have always looked at my life and hoped that I would leave this life having impacted as many people as I could and having helped as many people as I could, but then I look at the life of Chico and many others in Talanga and I know they will never leave here. They might never know what its like to live in Marietta or go to school in Charlotte nor have their eyes opened to many different things. But, Chico is a good man. He has welcomed us with open arms and is a well respected and well known man in Talanga. And I can’t say his life isn’t valid.

So how do I live a valid life if I can’t say that Chico’s life isn’t valid? And how on Earth do I define a valid life? I don’t want to say that it’s based on how many people you impact because that makes it sound as if it’s a competition. But so what is a valid life? Maybe it is a life lived following one’s passions—but do there need to be any clarifications on what those passions are? So, is someone who is passionate about bird boxes and follows that whole heartedly living a life as validly as one who is passionate about fighting world hunger? I don’t know the answer to this question. Or is a life valid when one feels as though they are living with a purpose and with joy? I also wonder if validity corresponds to selflessness in a life.

And since I cannot answer these questions, I move to how I can’t define a valid life. A life cannot be deemed valid based on the number of people impacted because this number could either be merely superficial impact and is unfair because people live lives in which they do not have the opportunity to be near a lot of people. A lady like Dona Maria Antonia who has never left the vicinity of her aldea of Terrero Colorado cannot be labeled as having a valueless life. A life cannot be deemed valid based on one’s position, social status or religion or race. Validity in life has to stretch through all cultures, religions, and races, but is established by that one person living the life.

I ask all these questions because if I look at Chico’s life and cannot say that his life is not valuable, then maybe I have to conclude that his life is valid. And then I have to realize that the validity of one’s life is maybe not based on goals, the amount of people one impacts, or even the great number of places one might have visited. In all this babbling, I think I am coming to the conclusion that a valid life is one lived with purpose and with joy.

What’s your opinion? Insight?