The Big What If

In John Green's best-selling novel, Looking for Alaska, he addresses a concept called "the Great Perhaps". On a side note, this novel, while some may view it as uneventful, contains many exquisite outlooks on life. The Great Perhaps is a concept that embraces the randomness of the universe. Statistics allows for predictability, however, in the end, the universe does everything based on randomness, unpredictability. The Great Perhaps can be interpreted in multiple ways by different people. To some, this perhaps may be the future, an unknown to everyone. To others, this perhaps could be life. Life, governed by the unpredictable universe, is unprecedented in its ability to surprise us. Life can be something wonderful or something terrible, usually a combination of both, the important thing is how we view it. Everything has a reaction, a chain of events that follow. These events can always be viewed in a positive and in a negative way. It is up to the individual to view the occurrences in their lives as positive or negative, and as such, view the entirety of their lives as well-lived or a waste. This viewpoint on life a mystery determined by subconscious. If we are able to realize this, however, we can grasp our outlook and change it for the better. Lastly, the Great Perhaps can be interpreted as death, death which is the most unknown and most feared thing by all living things. For all living things have a programmed desire to live. Many go into this Great Perhaps unready and unwillingly, but what for all humanity knows, it could be something wonderful. For death should not be feared. All of us are going to die, it is one of the many inevitability of life, a gift granted at our first breath. The important thing, is to accept this death as an incentive to do great things in the short time available on this Earth and in the known reality. Perhaps the Great Perhaps is not meant to mean one thing, it is meant to leave us wondering, exploring, striving, living.