As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today.
What is the difference between “living” and “feeling alive” to you?
People often talk about the difference between surviving and living. To me, that distinction is the core of today’s prompt.
The Marrow and the Steady Seven
“Living” is a conscious, consistent experience of the full human condition. It’s the laughter, the labor, the tears, and the play. It isn’t a frantic search for excitement, but a steady, intentional engagement with the world. I like to think I’ve been truly living for several months now—maintaining a “steady 7” on the scale of fulfillment. I’m not wrestling alligators, but I am awake. To borrow from Thoreau, I’m doing my best “to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”
On the other hand, “feeling alive” is a temporary awakening—a sudden, jarring spike in sensation.
The Technicolor Jump
I speak from experience. Nearly 30 years ago, I climbed a tower to go bungee jumping. During the ascent, I felt clumsy and awkward, second-guessing every step. But once I jumped and felt that cord snap—once I realized I wasn’t dead—I opened my eyes and felt invincible. I felt godlike.
It was like the moment in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy opens the door. Suddenly, the sepia-toned, black-and-white world of Kansas is replaced by vibrant Technicolor. In that moment, hanging upside down, I “felt alive” because I had finally found a diversion from the quiet desperation of the everyday.
The Flatline of Quiet Desperation
But looking back, when I hear someone today gasp, “I’ve never felt so alive,” I feel a sense of pity. It suggests that their “normal” state is a monochrome flatline. In medical terms, they are merely surviving, and the adrenaline is just the occasional “blip” on the monitor—the only sign of life in an otherwise robotic routine.
Avoiding the Robotic Grind
In our modern “wash, rinse, repeat” society, it’s dangerously easy to become a moving part in a machine. This is my greatest hesitation when I look at the future—the fear of returning to a monotonous grind where the color drains out of the world and I’m forced to wait for the next adrenaline spike just to remember I exist.
Adrenaline rushes are fleeting, but living should be a constant. If you only “feel alive” when you’re escaping your reality, then you aren’t actually inhabiting your life; you’re just visiting the Land of Oz before returning to the gray. Those of us who are truly living don’t need to jump off a tower to know we’re here; we feel the pulse in the quiet, colorful moments of the every day.
Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Whether I’m closing in on 1,000 consecutive days of blogging or reflecting on the decade of work that brought me here, the mission remains the same: No glitz. Just the work. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint and the ‘Tricorder’ perspective behind the rebuild.
Today’s post is inspired by the WordPress Daily Prompt. While I’ve taken the topic in my own direction for the Road to 1,000 Days, you can find more responses to today’s prompt HERE.
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AI art created with Google Gemini.
The article “Technicolor Blips and the Mnemonic Hum”
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