How finding your spark does not equate to finding your purpose in life. — What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose in this world? Is life truly meaningless? These are the questions that run through Pixar’s animated movie Soul (2020) as it tries to offer a philosophical yet entertaining reflection on what it means to be human. Soul introduces us to…

A response to the 1980 sci-fi film Altered States as it relates to the existential question of life’s meaning. Altered States follows the journey of Edward Jessup, a psychopathologist who is in search of deeper truth about other states of consciousness that he believes is just as real as our…

A reflection on Schopenhauer’s pessimism and the relationship between pain and pleasure. Schopenhauer views human existence through an extremely negative lens and talks about life simply being a perpetual suffering. In this reflection, I am going to focus on why I do not find Schopenhauer’s pessimism to be compelling, and…

A short story. — “C’est la vie.” I think of his droopy eyelids setting into a deep coma-like sleep as he smirked and whispered those words into my ear last night in his terrible French accent. …

An analysis on the inequity of life depicted by Shakespeare’s characters in Macbeth. — When everything is falling apart, one can’t help but wonder whether this fact is a result of their flaws or is it a matter of hapless destiny? William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, takes place in Scotland during the reign of the virtuous King Duncan. The plot revolves around the Scottish thane…

Sophocles’ Theban trilogy is a collection of classical Greek plays that are still cherished and enjoyed throughout the world because of the wide range of unique topics that they revolve around, such as incest, gender discrimination, revenge, and the fulfilling of prophecies. In fact, many critics have taken their thoughts…

Understanding what it means to live life to its fullest from an Islamic lens. — Diane Ackerman, a poet, essayist and naturalist, once said, “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” Life has a plethora of unanswerable questions, and I have…

An analysis on the theocratic republic of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale. — Edmund Cooper, a prolific speculative fiction writer, writes in one of his books, “I am rebelling against imprisonment. I am rebelling against tyranny of the mind. I am rebelling against a collection of machines with interchangeable faces. Above all, I am rebelling against my own ignorance and your deliberate deception.”…

Introduction Defined by the World Health Organization as “a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person”, elder abuse is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue around the globe (Post…