There are very few things on this earth that we can all agree on. One of those things is that our lives are the most important, valuable, and precious things we have. There is no one who would trade his or her life for all the treasure on this planet.

A long time ago, an employee asked to meet with me. He wanted to inform me that he was contemplating suicide. He had recently lost a big business deal and had been forced into bankruptcy. He said he had nothing left of any value. In a flash of what may have been divine inspiration, I asked him, "George (not his real name), how much would you sell your eyes for?" He saw the light and started to cry. He kept on living. The point is that one's sight is priceless; how much more is life worth?

The almost unbelievable fact is that not one of the countless millions of medical doctors, life scientists, or brilliant scholars now living or who have ever lived has been able to provide a coherent explanation or definition of life. We can agree that to us, life is the most important thing on this planet, and yet we don't know what it is.

I recently read that 100 scientists were asked to provide a definition of life. No two answers were the same. The truth is that we don't know what that force that we call life really is. All we know is that once that force leaves any animal or plant, what is left quickly turns to dust (or, more precisely, dirt).

Webster, the most respected dictionary of the English language, tells us that life is what shows us the difference from inorganic matter. We already knew that. All the other definitions you may find are as lacking as Webster's. A more honest response to the question would be, "I just don't know," rather than trying to explain the unexplainable.

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