Word that means good life

What is “the good life”? This is one of the oldest philosophical questions. It has been posed in different ways—How should one live? What does it mean to “live well”?—but these are really just the same question. After all, everyone wants to live well, and no one wants “the bad life.”

But the question isn’t as simple as it sounds. Philosophers specialize in unpacking hidden complexities, and the concept of the good life is one of those that needs quite a bit of unpacking.

The Moral Life

One basic way we use the word “good” is to express moral approval. So when we say someone is living well or that they have lived a good life, we may simply mean that they are a good person, someone who is courageous, honest, trustworthy, kind, selfless, generous, helpful, loyal, principled, and so on.

They possess and practice many of the most important virtues. And they don’t spend all their time merely pursuing their own pleasure; they devote a certain amount of time to activities that benefit others, perhaps through their engagement with family and friends, or through their work, or through various voluntary activities.

This moral conception of the good life has had plenty of champions. Socrates and Plato both gave absolute priority to being a virtuous person over all other supposedly good things such as pleasure, wealth, or power.

In Plato’s dialogue Gorgias, Socrates takes this position to an extreme. He argues that it is much better to suffer wrong than to do it; that a good man who has his eyes gouged out and is tortured to death is more fortunate than a corrupt person who has used wealth and power dishonorably.

In his masterpiece, the Republic, Plato develops this argument in greater detail. The morally good person, he claims, enjoys a sort of inner harmony, whereas the wicked person, no matter how rich and powerful he may be or how many pleasure he enjoys, is disharmonious, fundamentally at odds with himself and the world.

It is worth noting, though, that in both the Gorgias and the Republic, Plato bolsters his argument with a speculative account of an afterlife in which virtuous people are rewarded and wicked people are punished.

Many religions also conceive of the good life in moral terms as a life lived according to God’s laws. A person who lives this way—obeying the commandments and performing the proper rituals—is pious. And in most religions, such piety will be rewarded. Obviously, many people do not receive their reward in this life.

But devout believers are confident that their piety will not be in vain. Christian martyrs went singing to their deaths confident that they would soon be in heaven. Hindus expect that the law of karma will ensure that their good deeds and intentions will be rewarded, while evil actions and desires will be punished, either in this life or in future lives.

The Life of Pleasure

The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus was one of the first to declare, bluntly, that what makes life worth living is that we can experience pleasure. Pleasure is enjoyable, it’s fun, it’s…well…pleasant! The view that pleasure is the good, or, to put I another way, that pleasure is what makes life worth living, is known as hedonism.

The word “hedonist,” when applied to a person, has slightly negative connotations. It suggests that they are devoted to what some have called the “lower” pleasures such as sex, food, drink, and sensual indulgence in general.

Epicurus was thought by some of his contemporaries to be advocating and practicing this sort of lifestyle, and even today an “epicure” is someone who is especially appreciative of food and drink. But this is a misrepresentation of Epicureanism. Epicurus certainly praised all kinds of pleasures. But he didn’t advocate that we lose ourselves in sensual debauchery for various reasons:

• Doing so will probably reduce our pleasures in the long run since over-indulgence tends to cause health problems and limit the range of pleasure we enjoy.
• The so-called “higher” pleasures such as friendship and study are at least as important as “pleasures of the flesh.»
• The good life has to be virtuous. Although Epicurus disagreed with Plato about the value of pleasure, he fully agreed with him on this point.

Today, this hedonistic conception of the good life is arguably dominant in Western culture. Even in everyday speech, if we say someone is “living the good life,” we probably mean that they enjoying lots of recreational pleasures: good food, good wine, skiing, scuba diving, lounging by the pool in the sun with a cocktail and a beautiful partner.

What is key to this hedonistic conception of the good life is that it emphasizes subjective experiences. On this view, to describe a person as “happy” means that they “feel good,” and a happy life is one that contains many “feel good” experiences.

The Fulfilled Life

If Socrates emphasizes virtue and Epicurus emphasizes pleasure, another great Greek thinker, Aristotle, views the good life in a more comprehensive way. According to Aristotle, we all want to be happy.

We value many things because they are a means to other things. For instance, we value money because it enables us to buy things we want; we value leisure because it gives us time to pursue our interests. But happiness is something we value not as a means to some other end but for its own sake. It has intrinsic value rather than instrumental value.

So for Aristotle, the good life is a happy life. But what does that mean? Today, many people automatically think of happiness in subjectivist terms: To them, a person is happy if they are enjoying a positive state of mind, and their life is happy if this is true for them most of the time.

There is a problem with this way of thinking about happiness in this way, though. Imagine a powerful sadist who spends much of his time gratifying cruel desires. Or imagine a pot-smoking, beer-guzzling couch potato who does nothing but sit around all day watching old TV shows and playing video games. These people may have plenty of pleasurable subjective experiences. But should we really describe them as “living well”?

Aristotle would certainly say no. He agrees with Socrates that to live the good life one must be a morally good person. And he agrees with Epicurus that a happy life will involve many and varied pleasurable experiences. We can’t really say someone is living the good life if they are often miserable or constantly suffering.

But Aristotle’s idea of what it means to live well is objectivist rather than subjectivist. It isn’t just a matter of how a person feels inside, although that does matter. It’s also important that certain objective conditions be satisfied.

For instance:

• Virtue: They must be morally virtuous.
• Health: They should enjoy good health and reasonably long life.
• Prosperity: They should be comfortably off (for Aristotle this meant affluent enough so that they don’t need to work for a living doing something that they would not freely choose to do.)
• Friendship: They must have good friends. According to Aristotle human beings are innately social; so the good life can’t be that of a hermit, a recluse, or a misanthrope.
• Respect: They should enjoy the respect of others. Aristotle doesn’t think that fame or glory is necessary; in fact, a craving for fame can lead people astray, just as the desire for excessive wealth can. But ideally, a person’s qualities and achievements will be recognized by others.
• Luck: They need good luck. This is an example of Aristotle’s common sense. Any life can be rendered unhappy by tragic loss or misfortune.
• Engagement: They must exercise their uniquely human abilities and capacities. This is why the couch potato is not living well, even if they report that they are content. Aristotle argues that what separates human beings from the other animals is the human reason. So the good life is one in which a person cultivates and exercises their rational faculties by, for instance, engaging in scientific inquiry, philosophical discussion, artistic creation, or legislation. Were he alive today he might well include some forms of technological innovation.

If at the end of your life you can check all these boxes then you could reasonably claim to have lived well, to have achieved the good life. Of course, the great majority of people today do not belong to the leisure class as Aristotle did. They have to work for a living.

But it’s still true that we think the ideal circumstance is to be doing for a living what you would choose to do anyway. So people who are able to pursue their calling are generally regarded as extremely fortunate.

The Meaningful Life

Recent research shows that people who have children are not necessarily happier than people who don’t have children. Indeed, during the child-raising years, and especially when children have turned into teenagers, parents typically have lower levels of happiness and higher levels of stress. But even though having children may not make people happier, it does seem to give them the sense that their lives are more meaningful.

For many people, the well-being of their family, especially their children and grandchildren, is the main source of meaning in life. This outlook goes back a very long way. In ancient times, the definition of good fortune was to have lots of children who do well for themselves.

But obviously, there can be other sources of meaning in a person’s life. They may, for instance, pursue a particular kind of work with great dedication: e.g. scientific research, artistic creation, or scholarship. They may devote themselves to a cause: e.g. fighting against racism or protecting the environment. Or they may be thoroughly immersed in and engaged with some particular community: e.g. a church, a soccer team, or a school.

The Finished Life

The Greeks had a saying: Call no man happy until he’s dead. There is wisdom in this. In fact, one might want to amend it to: Call no man happy until he’s long dead. For sometimes a person can appear to live a fine life, and be able to check all the boxes—virtue, prosperity, friendship, respect, meaning, etc.—yet eventually be revealed as something other than what we thought they were.

A good example of this Jimmy Saville, the British TV personality who was much admired in his lifetime but who, after he died, was exposed as a serial sexual predator.

Cases like this bring out the great advantage of an objectivist rather than a subjectivist notion of what it means to live well. Jimmy Saville may have enjoyed his life. But surely, we would not want to say that he lived the good life. A truly good life is one that is both enviable and admirable in all or most of the ways outlined above.

good life — перевод на русский

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What is the good life? Entire books have been written to address this question. Philosophers of all ages pondered about this transcendent query as well. Still, the question remains to this present day. It therefore comes as no surprise that people are still looking to discover what it truly means to be living the good life. Finding an answer to this question is not easy, even in the modern age of information. The term “living the good life” can mean quite a variety of different things to different people. The following will present from a variety of different perspectives what the good life is all about. In its basic form, living the good life is all about the exploration of that which gives you joy and satisfaction. It’s about finding purpose and meaning in your life and drawing happiness from that which you do.

Every human being aspires to live a good life. The problem is, we all define the phrase “good life” differently. Some are looking to live an honest life, full of integrity, joy and happiness. Others seek wealth, social status and fame, as they hope these aspects will help them to live the good life. In fact, they directly associate the good life with money and material belongings.

In people’s quest for a good life, some completely disregard the needs of other people, while others consider helping people a means of living a good life. In the end, the question who gets to decide what it is that constitutes a good life remains.

Not every person that is living “the dream” or “the good life” is actually living a good life. Take for instance the infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. He surely lived well. After all, Escobar is recorded to have been the wealthiest criminal in history. He had private jets, race cars and luxurious mansions. And I’m pretty sure he certainly draw happiness and satisfaction from his life. But was his life a good life? Certainly not.

As you can see, there’s potentially a huge difference between living the good life and living a good life. Not every person that is living a satisfied life is living a good life.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.
Socrates

Let’s have a closer look what a good life is.

Table of contents

Definition of the good life
What is the good life?
The good life according to philosophy.
How to live the good life?

Definition of the good life

The good life is a term that refers to a (desirable) state that is primarily characterized by a high standard of living or the adherence to ethical and moral laws. In its two different expressions, living the good life can be either expressed through an abundant/luxurious lifestyle full of material belongings or the attempt to live life in accordance with the ethical, moral, legal and religious laws of one’s country or culture. As such, the term can both be understood as the quest for wealth, material possessions or luxuries and the quest to create a worthwhile, honest and meaningful existence.

The term is also a central concept in the works of Aristotle that are centered around ethics (see also Eudaimonia).

What is the good life?

What exactly is the good life and what contributes to living a good life?

When it comes to living the good life, we almost all have a certain idea how such a life should look like. For some, the good life is all about spending time playing video games or watching television, while eating and drinking as much as they please. Others associate the good life with days spent in nature, pondering and philosophizing about life. Some simply want to spend their time in a worthwhile and productive manner, for example by trying to make this world a better place. Others believe that the good life is all about pleasure, wealth and the fulfillment of all their (material) wishes.

These examples raise an important issue. When it comes to the good life, some understand it as the continuous pursuit of their desires by means of mundane activities. Others consider it as the striving for personal excellence and the wish to contribute something meaningful in life.

We then have to ask ourselves the question, if the good life could really be characterized by a high standard of living alone. If this were the case, living the good life would primarily consist of the never-ending attempt to fulfill one’s desires and material wishes. As we all know, human desires can be boundless, while the earth’s resources are quite limited. As such, the (excessive) good life of one group of people might prevent others from living the “high-standard-of-living good life.” Or it might hinder future generations from ever living the good life.

A high standard of living can certainly be regarded as part of the good life. But in itself, the good life does not alone consist of wealth and abundance. As such, it would be quite limited and out of balance.

In line with this arguing, the popular philosophers Socrates and Plato primarily define in their works the good life as the examination of life, the mastery of the self and the contribution to one’s community. To them, living the good life integrated aspects of self-control and civic duty. As such, the good life consisted of reining in your passions by attaining mastery over yourself and to contribute to your community.

To return to the initial question, what is the good life?

Living the good life means living a life that sets you free. A life that satisfies and fulfills you, that adds happiness, joy and a sense of purpose to your life. But it also means to live a life that is worthwhile – a life that makes a contribution, instead of being solely self-centered. The good life is a life that is not primarily wasted with mundane activities. Instead, it adds value and contributes to making this world a better place. Even more so, it also contributes to your own growth. The attainment of a high standard of living alone might not be fully fulfilling and will definitely not set you free. Therefore, the good life combines aspects of exploration, self-mastery and civic responsibility with the endeavor to spend your time in a worthwhile manner that both satisfies and fulfills. It is only through the combination of these aspects that a joyous and happy life can be truly considered the good life.

The good life according to philosophy

Plato about the good life

In his work Apology, Plato gives an account of a speech given by Socrates while defending himself against allegations of impiety and corrupting the youth in the year 399 BC. When being asked by the court why Socrates simply cannot stop questioning the way people live, Socrates responds with a simple, yet profound answer. According to Socrates the unexamined life is not worth living. Living life without ever reflecting upon it is not worth living. The person who unquestioningly and continuously repeats the cycle of waking up, working and going back to sleep, is not living the good life. Even further, people that do not reflect on the nature of things are not living a worthwhile life. If a person is not examining what they value and why, the chances of them being able to live a good life are reduced.

Examining, reflecting and questioning the nature of things, however, is not enough. Similarly, it’s not enough to reflect on your personal values. Living the good life requires you to become a Master of yourself. Socrates compared this process to a charioteer directing two horses. Socrates argued that each and every one of us is such a charioteer. We all have to handle two horses. The first horse is stubborn. It is a direct reflection of our animal instincts with a boundless appetite for lust and pleasure. The first horse goes in whatever direction it pleases, if not tightly controlled. It is egotistical and does not reflect what it does. It simply does. The second horse is of a much nobler and more sensible spirit. It resembles reason and man’s capability to reflect upon that which he does.

If the charioteer ever wants to live the good life, the stubborn appetites of the first horse must be controlled. Only by using your reason to reign in your passions, the two horses will lead you on the path of the good life. In line with this arguing, not being able to control your desires and passions will make you behave like an uncontrolled and misdirected stubborn horse. Socrates concluded that by living a just life, based on reflection, examination and servitude to society, a person can truly live the good life. But those who allow desires and passions to guide their actions, are most likely not living worthwhile lives.

Aristotle about the good life

In Aristotle’s best-known work, Nicomachean Ethics, the philosopher adds important insights about the good life. Very early in this work, Aristotle seeks to construct a framework by developing an understanding about the highest good for human beings. He points out that to most people, the highest good consists either in the acquisition of wealth, the pursuit of honor or the satisfying of bodily pleasures. As a result, most people act accordingly. They seek wealth, honor or satisfaction and thereby hope to ultimately attain happiness. Aristotle, however, points out that none of these aspects can ever serve as the highest good. Firstly, he argues that wealth is primarily used to acquire other things. In itself, wealth cannot make happy. Secondly, honor might not necessarily contribute to a person’s happiness. Instead, honor is primarily sought to change how people think of us. Thirdly, the desire to fulfill one’s (bodily) desires is not something limited to human beings alone. Animals are seeking pleasure, too. Even more so, by orientating one’s life primarily to the satisfaction of bodily pleasures, a human being behaves no differently than an animal. According to Aristotle, such a life is neither fit nor meant for human beings.

From this Aristotle concludes that the highest good cannot consist primarily out of these three aspects. Instead, the highest good should be something that aims to maximize the inherent faculties of man. It helps human beings to develop that which separates them from animals. In line with this arguing, the capacity for reason is that which separates man from cattle.

Based on his reflections, Aristotle highlights the essential qualities of the good life. These qualities primarily consist of contemplation and learning. It is through the process of contemplating and learning that intellectual virtues are steadily acquired. These virtues can for instance stem from the acquisition of knowledge about the fundamental principles of nature. Furthermore, this knowledge can be expanded by applying the principles of nature.

However, contemplation and acquiring knowledge is not enough to live the good life. Solely understanding nature’s principles and contemplating on these does not contribute the highest good. It is only through right action that knowledge can be put to its proper use. Hence, the development of a strong and virtuous character is necessary to perform right actions. Aristotle therefore concludes that the highest good consists of the acquisition of both intellectual and personal virtues. And, by living in accordance to the highest good, happiness (or Eudaimonia) can be attained. Consequently, a person achieves happiness by contemplation, learning and the mental strength to perform right actions. Such a person does not only know what is right, but also acts accordingly and derives happiness, fulfillment and purpose from it.

How to live the good life?

As pointed out in the above, living the good life consists of three essential aspects. These aspects are centered around concepts of self-mastery, exploration/contemplation/learning and civic engagement:

By integrating these fundamental aspects into life, the good life that creates happiness, fulfillment and gives you a sense of purpose and meaning in life can be attained. Therefore, the ideal of the good life does not set you on a pursuit of wealth, status and pleasure, but creates happiness, fulfillment and joy through understanding the world you live in, mastering yourself and helping your community to thrive.

In the following you can find several ideas to live the good life.

1. Examine life, seek knowledge

Examine life, explore its concepts and principles and seek to learn new things each day. Be open for new ideas and never cease to go through life with open eyes.

Aristotle stated for a good reason that the unexamined life is not worth living. Living without questioning and reflecting your behavior, beliefs and values, can result in spending your time with activities that are not worthwhile. Even more so, it might even make it all the more difficult to live the good life. On the other hand however, by applying reason to the examination of (your own) life, a continuous stream of knowledge and virtues can be acquired. It is our capacity for reason that differentiates human beings from (instinct-driven and pleasure-seeking) animals. If we explore the world and contemplate on our discoveries, new sources of pleasure, happiness and well-being can be tapped into.

2. Slow down and enjoy simplicity

A great number of people assume that the good life can only be attained by adding more to their life. As a consequence, they seek to add material belongings, wealth, social status, fame or something entirely different to their lives. This, however, is the wrong approach. You don’t necessarily have to add something new to your life to enjoy the good life. Quite the contrary is the case. The good life does not consist of continuously chasing evermore. Instead, simplicity and the ability to draw happiness from what you already have can be integral aspects of a good life. This shift in perception can help you to start living the good life in this present moment, without being dependent upon external influences.

3. Seek to attain self-mastery

Living the good life is all about mastering yourself. But interestingly, most people do not consider self-mastery when it comes to the pursuit of a good life. Instead of seeking discipline and mastery over themselves, they prefer to chase wealth, material possessions, status or the fulfillment of desires. However, without self-discipline one’s actions are primarily centered around the wish to fulfill desires. As a result, we waste important time and energy on feeding desires that can never be fully satisfied. Consequently, our actions are egotistical, self-centered and unreflected. Instead of living the good life, we succumb to the instinct-driven and unreasoned qualities we share with animals.

It is only through self-mastery that we can replace our boundless appetite for pleasure with a nobler and more reasonable thinking. Instead of being instinct-driven, it allows us to reflect and to think about what we do.

4. Drawing joy and happiness from life’s simple pleasures

In their quest to live the good life, the vast majority of people shift their attention from the present moment to a desirable state in the future. They think that the good life can only be attained through the acquisition of wealth, status and a variety of other things. Therefore, these people will never truly be able to live the good life, because there will always be something missing. They either do not have enough material possessions to satisfy all their desires. Or they are no longer able to enjoy these possessions after a certain period of time.

For this reason, the ability to draw happiness from life’s simple pleasures is essential. It’s a person’s ability to take pleasure from even the most simplistic things in life that will help in understanding how worthwhile this present moment is.

5. Help in making this world a better place

Almost all philosophers that pondered about the good life highlighted the importance of civic engagement. It is an integral aspect of a good life. Even more so, all the other aspects of the good life can only be committed in a worthwhile manner by utilizing them for the greater cause. Therefore, the life that is solely lived for the purpose of fulfilling one’s own desires can never be fully considered a truly meaningful and worthwhile existence.

6. Be grateful for what you have

Gratitude is an important aspect of the good life. It helps us to overcome the feeling of not having enough. By being grateful we can also overcome the never-ending pursuit of boundless desires.

7. Don’t worry about things you can’t control

Life presents us with two different aspects. Firstly, those aspects of our life that can be influenced or changed. Secondly, there are those aspects or events that are beyond our ability to influence or alter. We are simply incapable of exerting even the slightest influence over these events. We therefore feel extremely intimidated and helpless. Feelings that even further contribute to our fear about things we cannot control.

However, the principal key to withstanding life’s hardship, lies in the way we allow these happenings to influence us. While we’re not able to control a great variety of events in life, we still have the capacity to control our responses to these events. We therefore have the choice to allow these happenings to break us and to incite fear within us, or to get back up from the ground and to recover from it.

8. Value and nurture relationships

Imagine you’re living the good life but no one is around you can share your joy with. The concept of living the good life includes the relationship dimension as well. Without it, it would not fully contribute to your happiness and fulfillment. Even more so, relationships are an integral part of a worthwhile life. Neither wealth nor social status can grant access to true friendship. Therefore, living the good life also consists of spending a significant amounts of your time with those that you love and enjoy being around. The good life is all about growing, developing and becoming stronger together, not alone.

9. Live your passions

Living the good life is all about discovering your true passions and having the courage to pursue these activities. By doing what you’re passionate about, a sense of fulfillment, accomplishment and true satisfaction can be added to your life.

10. Live in the moment

While it is certainly true that the good life means a great variety of different things to different people, we can all agree that being haunted by the past or having fear of the future is certainly not part of it. Instead of being trapped in the past or fearful about the future, try to enjoy this present moment. There’s nothing you can do to change what happened. Also, the future can be greatly impacted in this very moment. Be here right now, this is exactly where you need to be.

Conclusion about the good life

Living the good life means to strive for self-mastery, exploration and the improvement of the world around you. It is a worthwhile life that sets you free. A life that is in balance and fully satisfies and fulfills you. But the good life is not just a life that adds happiness, joy and pleasure, but it also desires to attain mastery over the self. The good life therefore is not a life spend by the never-ending pursuit of personal desires. Instead, it seeks to reign in your passions by attaining self-control. The one who is living the good life also contributes to the betterment of this world and adds value to it.

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
Bertrand Russell

I hope you enjoyed this exploration of the good life. Let us know in the comment section below what your understanding is of living a good life.

Stay victorious!

Last Updated:
11 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

What do these words mean to you?

Obviously, they will mean different things to different people.

To most people living in Western countries, it means being rich, the richer, the better. As the saying goes, you can never be too rich or too thin in the current version of our world. Thin people have more sex (except when they are thin because they are sick, of course), and rich people have more of everything (except for common sense, it would seem).

To Mother Theresa, it meant taking care of people with leprosy, AIDS and other diseases. Somehow she managed to be quite happy in her poverty stricken world, while also being very thin and poor. People like this seem to have died out about two decades ago.

To a chief of a tiny tribe in the Amazon jungle, nonchalantly chewing a mind-altering plant while lost in his thoughts swinging in his hammock on a sunny day and enjoying the colors, sounds and scents of the jungle and his peaceful village, living the good life and being happy probably means good weather and enough food for him and everyone in his little village.

*********

What does living a good life mean to this mad patent translator?

Well, I know that I will never be rich, except perhaps in comparison to a few hundred thousand seamstresses in Bangladesh. But I do enjoy a good hunt for inexpensive but very good wines in my price range, a challenge that puts some much needed excitement in my otherwise bland and boring life, and I just discovered Argentinian wines fit this description, and I prefer cheap watches to expensive ones anyway, as long as they keep correct time. It is much safer to have a cheap watch these days – you don’t get mugged for a Timex.

I also know that I will never join the world of incredibly greedy and not terribly bright people who are running our world without seeming to notice or care that they are running it into the ground, and I am quite happy about that.

Since I am no Mother Theresa either, that would perhaps leave the Amazon Indian chief as a model worth following.

But I have  my own definition of what living the good life means to me.

Living the good life means having most of the time just enough work and just enough money to do the things that I want to do with the rest of my life, provided that I enjoy, at least for the most part, the work I am doing.

Living good life also means being able to enjoy the sounds, colors and scents of my world, although it is a different kind of jungle than the one the chief in his hammock knows so intimately.

Since I graduated with a degree in Japanese studies 33 years ago, I was able to put Japanese and other languages that I have been studying for more than 4 decades now to good use in a number of interesting jobs.

And since I am putting everything that I have learned and keep learning just about every day to good use now as a freelance patent translator, and hopefully will be able to do so for as long as my brain can process my thoughts and my fingers can find the right words by clicking on the keys on my computer’s keyboard, I harbor no envy for the serenity the man in the hammock must feel as he is watching the sunset and spitting a glob of reddish, greenish or bluish saliva into the green grass on the village green.

*************

Living the good life to me means having the power to say yes when I agree with something, and to say no when I want to say no. Not that many people have this power, but this power is mine, or yours, when you really are a freelance translator in every sense of the word freelance.

The word is composed of two words: free + lance. I will use my lance and fight for anybody (freely, but not for free – I am quite the mercenary when it comes to putting my lance to a fight) who wants me to translate information that could be important for the direction the jungle of our world is likely to follow today or tomorrow. The fights for which I have been using my lance as a freelance translator since 1987 mostly have to do with technology.

When I started my translating career, a portable telephone was a huge, heavy brick that could be used only for making calls. Today, my tiny cell phone can be used to take pictures and make movies, read newspapers, watch TV, find a restaurant and many other things in addition to making a phone call.

In a few years we should be able to use our phone as a portable shower, and who knows, in a few decades we may be able to use our phones for time travel if new technologies keep being developed at such a breakneck speed. Admittedly, much better broadband would be needed for both of these new applications, nothing like the current broadband cemetery sold at inflated prices throughout these United States where Youtube videos go to die.

My contribution to all of these pretty incredible changes, however small it might have been, would be another definition of what the words “living the good life” mean to me.

What do they mean to you?