Significance

In reading the first part of the essay “How do you see it?” by Chelsie Stevens, I found myself looking at significance in a different regard. In a sense our existence must be validated by something, whether that be through other people, ourselves, sports, leadership, or even our looks. I was a little confused in her essay as to whether or not she was talking about how we see our selves significant or that there is a general rule of significance. It seemed as though she was talking about a general view of significance, as it is a very subjective term. We find significance through our own eyes and as she said, “Someone who makes it into the history books for the impact they made on the world is just as significant as a person volunteering at the animal shelter” (Stevens 34). I believe that to be true, our significance and success are very loose terms that depend on a plethora of subjective criteria. A person can be significant in their own mind if they raise their child right as opposed to others who are totally career minded and must make a dent in that dimension of reality.
In my opinion I find that so many things that are done and considered to be significant are somewhat trivial. So what if someone got the Nobel Prize or was awarded employee of the month. Who will remember them in 100 years from that very moment of time? Not many. Our lives are so very short and what really is the point if the only thing worth living for is the now? I’d like to suggest that there is perhaps something more to life than living for the now. What if there was something after this life, an eternity after this life and that everything in this life would, in turn, affect that life. This would drastically change the context of what was and was not significant. If we were living life for a larger purpose other than the direct future or even just the future of our children then we would certainly be living differently. When life is at stake there isn’t much to loose because when it is over, it is over. When eternity is at stake then there is something more to live for than a sudden cut off from all that we know as reality.
Significance would then be measured by how you affected your eternity depending on how you view eternity. Some choose to view eternity as a cyclical chain of life where we are just reborn on to earth again. Others choose to believe that there is a heaven and a hell after this life. Others also believe that only their spirits live on to affect the lives of their children and those before them. There are a variety of views on life that contextualize significance in another way.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/significance
http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Life-Of-Significance&id=790995
http://www.alternativeeducationindia.net/education_ch1.htm
http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/en-US/Home/home.htm