LUST FOR LIFE

You're worth a million in prizes.

We all get knocked down, and you can’t embrace life if you don’t claw your way back up. You can’t run toward life if you’re flat on your back. Lust for life means you practice resilience so you can rebound and wring every last drop out of life. Ralph Waldo Emerson urged, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” To overcome obstacles and bounce back from misfortune, you need resilience and enthusiasm—a lust for life.

(Also, if you’re going to commit one of the seven deadly sins, lust seems like the pick of the litter. It’s much better than avarice or gluttony.)

I’ve been inspired to resilience by a story about Thomas Edison. One evening in 1914 Edison was just finishing up his dinner. A man came rushing into his house with some urgent and terrible news: A massive explosion had erupted at Edison’s research and production campus. Ten buildings were engulfed in flames.

You’d look like this too if your lab and factory burned down. Oh stop it, you know you would.

Edison rushed to the site, but unfortunately, the firefighters could not contain the chemical fire, despite the efforts of eight different fire departments.

Edison calmly told his 24-year-old son Charles, "Go get your mother and all her friends. They'll never see a fire like this again."

When Charles objected, Thomas Edison said, "It's all right. We've just got rid of a lot of rubbish."

Later, at the scene of the blaze, Edison was quoted in the NY Times as saying, "Although I am over 67 years old, I'll start all over again tomorrow."

This man lost his life’s work in his seventh decade, and this is the resilience he had after a complete professional and financial disaster.

Seneca wrote that, “Fire is the test of gold, adversity of strong men.” Resilience to me means that you’re not going to collapse like a cheap lawn chair just because of a little thing like your factory burning down.

Stoicism was born from resilience. We wouldn’t have this school of philosophy if Zeno of Citium didn’t rebound after losing his ship and cargo of precious purple dye. Zeno said, “Now that I've suffered a shipwreck, I'm on a good journey.” He bounced back to found the philosophy of Stoicism.

You’d look like this too if you’d suffered a shipwreck. Oh stop it. you know you would.

I live with a disease called sarcoidosis of the central nervous system. The neurological pain caused by this often makes my neck feel like it’s on fire. My belief in Stoic resilience helps me live through it, and my lust for life helps me look past it.

I recently came home to find that my apartment was flooded for the third time in six months. Each time I had to move out and remove all my books and gear. The floor will have to be replaced, again. There is a danger of mold sprouting up, and I’m immunocompromised.

The head of the board of my New York City apartment building asked me, “Why aren't you screaming?” I said, “If I scream I’m only going to jack up my cortisol and hurt myself. The floors and carpets are already ruined.” I thought of Edison’s laboratory going up in flames. I felt, if he can deal with fire I can deal with water.

Resilience is a superpower. Resilience is a choice. I know what pain is, I know what weakness is, I know what it’s like to be pancaked by obstacles. Because I know these, for this reason, I am a resilient Stoic who has a lust for life.

And lust for life inspires me, the former VJ, to recall Iggy Pop and David Bowie, different kinds of philosophers who collaborated to write the incredible song that inspired this essay.

David Bowie (L), Iggy Pop (R), and Czech filmmaker Ivan Kral (top). I assume Ivan also had a lust for life.

How have you been resilient? What has inspired your lust for life? Let us know in the comments!