Body and Health

How important is taking care of our bodies to leading the good life? On the one hand, we appreciate life with our minds and even ponder this question mentally. On the other hand, even a simple cold makes thinking that much harder. At the least, it is a distraction. A sentence is interrupted by a bout of coughing. At worst, it slows you down, thinking is impossible because you fall asleep as soon as you stop moving. Without being in good physical condition, it becomes nearly impossible to try and discover what the meaning of life is because our bodies are making demands to stop what we want to be doing and take care of it. In order to be able to contemplate anything, we have to maintain our physical health.

But then, when we are healthy again, we can feel our energy return to us. The coughing is gone like magic; it is as though it was never there. We are free now, not just to contemplate, but to act to participate in the world and have something to contemplate about. We regain our social connections which we temporarily lost; nobody wants to be around a sick person, particularly if they are contagious. It is depressing to be sick and that depression lifts with good health. But does illness make us appreciate our lives more when we are well? For some, yes. But for others, no. A cold can leave suddenly, or slowly fade so that we don't even realize it is gone for some time. Being sick is an obstacle to appreciating the meaning of life, but getting well again does not necessarily bring enlightenment.