Trying to predict the legacy we will leave behind is one way of gaining perspective, to look at the world with fresh eyes. It is an exercise that asks us to put some distance between what we believe and value and what future generations will believe and value. Only by getting outside ourselves, and outside our present moment, can we begin to understand our true nature as individuals and our place in history.

Of course, this sense of perspective is useless if it does not provoke a reaction. If it does not motivate people and institutions search constantly for a sense of identity and purpose, it is of no help. Because after the dust of our present conflicts settle, future generations will only be left with our words and deeds to judge us by. Our intentions, good or otherwise, will be lost, washed away like footprints in the sand. How would you like to be remembered? Perhaps more importantly: How will you be remembered?

Trying to predict the legacy we will leave behind is one way of gaining perspective, to look at the world with fresh eyes. It is an exercise that asks us to put some distance between what we believe and value and what future generations will believe and value. Only by getting outside ourselves, and outside our present moment, can we begin to understand our true nature as individuals and our place in history.

Of course, this sense of perspective is useless if it does not provoke a reaction. If it does not motivate people and institutions search constantly for a sense of identity and purpose, it is of no help. Because after the dust of our present conflicts settle, future generations will only be left with our words and deeds to judge us by. Our intentions, good or otherwise, will be lost, washed away like footprints in the sand. How would you like to be remembered? Perhaps more importantly: How will you be remembered?

Our parents probably never knew it would come to this. The sexual liberation movement of the 60s and 70s heralded fundamental changes in the social behavior of an entire generation. But even the holdovers from the “Free Love” era might be shocked at the casual licentiousness of modern college culture.

It seems sensible, though, to acknowledge that the path we currently tread is a natural extension of the one blazed by the previous generation. So instead of just asking, “Is what we are doing OK?” perhaps we should also consider, “What are the consequences, and how can we deal with them?”

The choices and problems we face are different from those of our parents. But it would be foolish to presume that the obstacles to modern love will be any less difficult to overcome. How do you carve a place in your heart and your life for just one person, when you can connect with anyone at anytime? In a world without privacy, can intimacy survive?

Throughout history, philosophers have struggled to develop a unified theory of humanness. In other words, what qualities or traits can be said to define us all, what common values do we share? Competing conceptions often draw on our inclination toward virtue and vice. Much of Western thought is based on the founding myth of Original Sin, which places the blame for mortality and pain squarely on our shoulders.

But perhaps it is time to acknowledge that the universal experiences we all share—life and death, pleasure and pain—are conditions that existed before we did, not guided by conscious choice or a rational force. To live virtuously, we must strike a balance, what Aristotle called the “golden mean”, between accepting that there is great suffering in the world and recognizing our immense capacity for good. Between reckless confidence and paralyzing fear. Between joy and melancholy. So here’s the question: How do we find this balance in our own lives?

Your existence is nothing less than a winning lottery ticket of circumstance. Common parlance refers to the “miracle of birth”, even if not everyone agrees with the implication of a divine presence at its base. At the very least, your life—the fact that you are you and no one else—was an extremely fortunate and unlikely occurrence.

And so if each of us is, in a sense, the beneficiary of a cosmic game of chance, the next question, and the one that most of us are grappling with right now, concerns what to do with the proceeds. What will you make of what you’ve been given? What is your purpose? What are you here for?