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At times I feel some semblance of shame—some fragment of thought in my mind, afraid that I might be judged for thinking seriously about my life and my actions, and the values I stand for.

The phrase “taking life too seriously” has garnered far too much of a negative connotation in our contemporary conversations; the profligate focus on happiness at the core of the human condition, on the path of least resistance, on blissful ignorance and the self-centeredness that pervades our culture blinds us to the very real suffering endured by countless others in this journey with us on this earth. For them, there is no option but to take life seriously.

No—I don’t want to say sorry later. I don’t want to have to apologize for not doing my due diligence, for not heeding to my calling, for turning my head away at the face of injustice, for succumbing to complacency. I will take life as seriously as I want to. And for as much as I can enjoy it myself, I know very well the day will come when this bubble—this insular and fragile world we live in—will burst.