What is your definition of life?

A living being to me is something that uses food to make energy.

My definition of life is being in the state of true awareness (i.e. actually reacting and responding to that which is around you, not a preprogrammed awareness as is which artificial intelligence.) It’s a horrid over-simplification, but life’s too vast to define otherwise.

@laineybug Plants use the sun to make energy.

@Rarebear to me they use the sun to make food for energy, so I meant to include plants.

Simple…live each day like there is no tomorrow.

The ability to breathe, think and most of all feel.

The opposite of death.

bio 101: eat(includes sunlight for plants) excrete move reproduce

To me life is like a river with a strong current. You get plopped in, and it’s gonna take you somewhere. But it’s up to you to go with the flow, swim against the current and climb the waterfall, or grab on to some log and hope for the best.

There are river openings and branchings up ahead. You got a choice to make. Wanna stay in the river, make it to the sea or get into some lake? Make a choice, but you don’t have all day. Some people drown, others smash into rocks, some explore deeper down, while others believe that eventually, some dude in a kayak is gonna save them.
Some swallow too much water and fight for air, and they succeed, others take away debris or sunken treasure along with them.
But it’s an ongoing journey without any guarantee but death.

You’ll get to the shore when you die.

@Symbeline And the river flows. And the river knows. On and on it goes…

GAAAAAAAAAAAAH noooo not that damn Willy Wonka thing make it stop lol

The river does know. And it’s the only that does. :)

I think the essence of life is self-replication along with the ability to obtain an external source of energy.

@Symbeline Willy Wonka thing…?

Yeah, the chocolate river…doesn’t he say that during that scene, or am I just traumatized? Mind you, it could easily be some Enya lyrics. :D

One shot at glory, grab that bastard with both hands.

The Precious Present

@Symbeline I hated that scene, so I never paid much attention to it.. Nor do I listen to Enya.. I was thinking The Doors’ Yes, The River Knows, Billy Joel’s The River Of Dreams and the Ferryman from Siddartha, actually…

Aaah, sorry. Not very familiar with any of this. I guess the river is a reoccurring metaphor for a lot of things though. (and yea that scene creeped me out when I was little…it still does)

I noticed that, too, rivers rock, though… And for such a lighthearted movie, that scene was incredibly out of place: “Hey, let’s go on a nice boat ride so I can scare the shit out of you with a trippy attempt at god-knows-what!”...

Yeah, when I saw that I’m like, what the HELL?? What’s this doing in a kid’s movie? O_o

So do you know the ’‘Old Man River’’ song? I’ve only heard it on The Simpsons, but Id love to find where it actually comes from. Damn satire making me wanna learn stuff. XD

This is the first I’ve heard of it, but I googled it, and it’s from a musical called Show Boat.

But satires are just wonderful in that respect.. Were it not for Weird Al Yankovic I probably never would have begun listening to the diverse range of music I do..

Life reverses local entropy. source