People who never worked inherit her fortune! What’s the point of hard work?

A couple finally builds their dream house. It burns to ashes during a California brush fire. Why follow your dreams? Elderly friends retire to Florida and one dies three months later. What’s the point of friendships? A doctor discovers the means of clotting blood that saves the lives of many. He bleeds to death after a car accident because none of the segregated hospitals will admit him. What’s the point of practicing medicine?

A young Senator dares to confront organized crime and denounce racism. He is shot dead after one of his campaign speeches. Why speak out against injustice? Iraqi parents send their daughters to a school willing to educate girls. The school is bombed. Why risk getting an education?

The reality of suffering and death need not nullify the value and goodness of life. This is especially true of a life lived for others! If you want to live your life in a way that leaves you bankrupt in the end, spend it all on yourself!

But if you can help someone as you pass along, do it! If you can cheer someone with a word or song, do it! If you council someone who is traveling wrong, do it! If you can teach someone, feed someone, clothe and shelter someone, do it! If you do, your life, no matter how it ends, will not have been lived in vain.