To say one is living a good life requires a complex equilibrium of many different elements. In the inescapable cycle of birth, suffering, and death, doesn't living well simply mean managing to avoid that suffering?

When I was young, I loathed the word 'hardship' without even truly understanding what it meant. Why should I suffer? Having now lived past the halfway mark of my life, it seems that childhood rebellion worked in my favor; I don't think I have ever endured the kind of hardship others speak of. Being born into a wealthy family and having a wealthy mother certainly played their part.

In the grand scheme of life, the lack of money seems to be the most severe hardship of all. Raising a child, securing their education, and affording every other modern convenience—everything exacts a financial toll. To merely exist in today's world requires capital. And so, people sprint relentlessly and ruthlessly to acquire it. "This is mine, don't touch it! Touch it and you're dead!" They fiercely guard their wealth with a readiness to kill.

Yet, human beings will cling to this money—which becomes entirely useless the moment the cycle concludes—right up until they close their eyes for the last time. Why do we do this? Do the dead know how grand and lavish their funerals are? Do they hover as ghosts over their own caskets, nodding in satisfaction, thinking, "Ah, I truly was someone of importance!" before moving on?

Death is the end. Game over!

You are left as nothing more than a fleeting memory in the minds of those still trapped in the cycle, forced to keep running. And with the passage of time, even that is completely wiped away. How unbearably hollow is this thing we call life?

But the fascinating irony is that the Creator engineered humanity with two specific traits: forgetfulness and delusion. Because without these two things, human existence would be entirely impossible! What a truly ingenious architect.

And that ingenious architect resides right here, inside of me!