Life's a Funny Proposition After All

George M. Cohan

Verse 1
Did you ever sit and ponder,
Sit and wonder, sit and think,
Why we're here and what this life is all about?
It's a problem that has driven
Many brainy men to drink,
It's the weirdest thing they've tried to figure out.
About a thousand diff'rent theories
All the scientists can show,
But never yet have proved a reason why
With all we've thought
And all we're taught,
Why all we seem to know
Is we're born and live a while and then we die.

Refrain 1
Life's a very funny proposition after all,
Imagination, jealousy, hypocrisy and all.
Three meals a day, a whole lot to say;
When you haven't got the coin you're always in the way.
Ev'rybody's fighting as we wend our way along,
Ev'ry fellow claims the other fellow's in the wrong;
Hurried and worried until we're buried and there's no curtain call.
Life's a very funny proposition after all.

Verse 2
When all things are coming easy, and when luck is with a man,
Why then life to him is sunshine ev'rywhere;
Then the fates blow rather breezy and they quite upset a plan,
Then he'll cry that life's a burden hard to bear.
Though today may be a day of smiles, tomorrow's still in doubt,
And what brings me joy, may bring you care and woe;
We're born to die, but don't know why, or what it's all about,
And the more we try to learn the less we know.

Refrain 2
Life's a very funny proposition, you can bet,
And no one's ever solved the problem properly as yet.
Young for a day, then old and gray;
Like the rose that buds and blooms and fades and falls away,
Losing health to gain our wealth as through this dream we tour.
Ev'rything's a guess and nothing's absolutely sure;
Battles exciting and fates we're fighting until the curtain falls.
Life's a very funny proposition after all.


(Note)
We decided to post this song here for 1st article of the year 2011.
Master Hui Guo Chan Shi is doing retreat most of the time due to his poor health.
We hope that the contents of this song can help the reader to ponder about Life seriously and benefit from this song written by Mr.George M. Cohan.

*May any merit gain by posting this article be dedicated to the enlightenment of all sentient beings especially dedicate to Mr.George M.Cohan.

11. Just to Ponder 2

Since we have a life which is given free to us, and the time given free to us, logically speaking, every one of us should be able to enjoy a good life.

However, most of us are not able to have a good life because of our own defilements. We have many complaints about our parents. Many people have blamed their parents for their failures. Some of us even point a finger at our parents for our sufferings. In this way, we can’t feel grateful towards our parents for the life they given us.

Have you ever wondered how much pain your mother had gone through when she was conceiving you in her womb for 9 months ? How much pain she had to bear during the time of delivering you? Have your mother grumbled to you about those pains she had gone through?

Have you contemplated and thought deeply about the way your mother have taken care of you when you were one day old, one month old, and one year old? How your mother have nursed you and taught you when you were an infant? She had cared for you, didn’t she? You wouldn’t have survived without her care for you with great loving kindness and compassion, would you?

We were hopeless when we were still an infant. Our parents nursed us, loved us, warmed us, fed us and cared for us with great tenderness when we were few months old. Have you felt grateful towards your parents? Without their loving kindness and compassion, will you survive till today?

Have you ever thought of repaying your parents’ effort of taking care of you? Without the sense of feeling grateful towards your parents, you may not try to repay their loving kindness and compassion give to you by them.

Do you think we should feel grateful towards our parents, and try to repay them for their efforts of taking care of us, in any way we can?

10. Just to Ponder

Have you wondered that when we took birth, we did not use a credit card or an ATM card or wrote a cheque for our birth? Our parents paid everything. We did not have to pay anything. We just came out from mother womb free of charge. Have your parents ever asked you to pay back the expenses for your birth? We are given a life free of charge, isn’t?

How come we have messed up our lives in dissatisfaction? Our credit cards are in bad shape. We are not at peace with ourselves. We hardly live a life we wanted. We have struggled all these years and what is the result now?

We have never paid for the time we have spent in this life. Each one of us is given 24 hours a day and 365 days a year free of charge. What have we done with our time to end up our life in this way? What are the mistakes we have done? Do we have the time to remedy it now?