How Does a Person Live a Meaningful Life Assignment

How Does a Person Live a Meaningful Life - Assignment Example A meaningful life is a life lived in kindness both on the inside and on the outside, and more than anything, should be a person not only of contemplation but also of action. The one quality that makes someone live a meaningful life is the life of kindness. Unless someone is kind, he will never be able to fully understand another person. When one is kind, he will be able to help other people not only through his acts of kindness but just by being a kind person to them. There are three advantages to being kind. First, through his example, he can inspire others to be also kind to their neighbors. Whenever there is a natural disaster that strikes a particular place, we cannot help but be inspired by people who lend a helping hand to the victims and we are then filled with their inspiring kindness, and then we then help these people. Had it not been for the kindness of some people, not many other people would decide to make donations to a particular charitable organization. A second advan tage of kindness is that it is its own reward, which means that the moment one shows kindness, he must already be happy with what he is doing. Moreover, in a supernatural point of view, those people who do acts of kindness sincerely are actually even rewarded more by God. Although a truly kind person does not expect any reward for what he has done, somehow God rewards him in secret. A third reason for why kindness defines meaning in life is that when one is kind, he will be able to get to know so many people whose lives he will touch and who can help fill his happiness. Also, in the realm of the supernatural, perhaps this is where one can find someone who he can love for the rest of his life, or he may be able to help. Indeed, with kindness nothing can go wrong. The saint is an example of someone who acts with kindness. He exemplifies kindness through his work and through his actions. The saint touches people’s lives only through her kindness. It is actually not his or her fa ith that moves the congregation but her kindness, and this kindness cannot be without action. The reason is that kindness cannot be the kindness that we know if it does not involve sincere giving of oneself and of one’s time and resources. In short, the action aspect of kindness is already embedded in its name and in its definition. You cannot therefore define, explain or talk about kindness without demonstrating it. This is also the reason why it is just natural for the saint to be kind and to exemplify kindness. The saint is actually the living example of kindness. Aside from kindness, another factor that makes life a meaningful one is that of sincerity, for without sincerity, there is no desire to be kind. Sincerity therefore is the one thing that determines the degree of kindness that one wants to express to someone who needs it. How then can sincerity be attained? As Plato taught us, we need to constantly contemplate our lives and we need to continue asking questions. As long as we contemplate our lives, we then try to understand how different or how similar our actions are to our true intentions. Thus, through contemplation we will at least have an idea whether what we are doing is sincere or not. The philosopher Plato has once asked the Greeks to contemplate on their lives and to keep asking questions in order to find out whether what they were doing were still moral or not anymore. From this, one would like to think that Plato was asking the Greeks also the question of finding out whether what they were doing on the outside were still in synch with what they had been wanting to do on the inside. For if these two things are similar, then that is a powerful combination that yields fruitful action and that if

Shanghai Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Shanghai - Essay Example ably located and this has made it to serve as China’s largest trading ports and gateways from the mid-19th century after the aftermath of the Opium war. The city occupies an area of 6,340 km ². The development of Shanghai comes from its several economic bases. It has made a rapid and sustained economic growth and development since the late 1970s when China began its economic reforms (Couling 2000). Shanghai has changed demographically with the population rising from fourteen million three hundred and fifty thousand people in the year 2000 according to United Nations statistical data but currently is has a population of over twenty three million as of 2010. The Gross Domestic Product of Shanghai during 1978-2000, attained was 6.5 times an increase and reached 48.749 U.S. dollars accompanied by a yearly growth rate of 9.5%. The city has shifted from an industrial and commercial city into a national economic center. The proportion in Shanghai’s G.D.P has been raised because of the rapid and faster development in various infrastructural sectors such as transport, insurance, real estate, banking, and trade. This has been facilitated by the rapid development of finance, insurance, trade, transportation, communications, and other types of the tertiary industries from 30 percent to 50 percent within a span of 10 years (Sheng 2002). Shanghai and Macau are related commercially in various infrastructural facilities. The common factor that keeps the relationship is the relatively cheap air transport. This facilitates quick business between the locals of the two cities. With increased business there is increase in the Gross Domestic Product of the two economies ( Peter 2002). Shanghai – Taiwan relationship was meant to deepen market-oriented reforms and boosting economic vitality and coexistence between the two cities. Taiwan and Shanghai have proposals, which cover cross-Strait cooperation in technology, finance, agriculture, education, tourism, as well as insurance.