In the beginning of the Creation, the Almighty was desperate to assign a unique life span to each of the different species of living beings. Somehow He decided to assign the average of the entire life span He had in store for the living beings. Thus it came out that all including the human beings have to be satisfied with the number 40. None but the human beings, His own mistake, showed disinterest in the decision. As an intelligent species, they need live longer—so argued they. The Almighty was about to end the matter with a blunt answer when the oxen suggested they need only 20 years. Anyway, they had sufferings and labour writ large on their forehead. What would they do with 40 years? The humans wondered if the oxen's share could be added to theirs. The Almighty agreed. The humans, greedy as they are, looked for still more. By that time, dogs came with their wish to give back 20 years as they wondered what they'd do with all that. Pleasure for the humans! With the Almighty's nod, they added 20 more to their kitty. Now it came to 60. Soon after the calculation was done, the owls hooted. The curious humans were on cloud nine when they got to know that the owls parted with their 28 years out of their share. They decided so because they didn't have the patience to sit for so long with the indifferent look in their eyes to things happening around them. The celebrations in the human camp ensured the Almighty that they had added up the 28 years from the owls and were quite happy with the number 108. (The Almighty must be wondering at the dizzy heights of greediness that the humans have scaled hours after their creation! In fact, they continue to do so even now!) All ready to settle with the new settings, the humans were ready to depart the place little caring for the Almighty's presence.
The omniscient Almighty, the greatest magician as He is, could decipher what wrong He has done by conceding to the humans' demands. Therefore, He reminded the human beings that they have been granted 40 years to live as humans; that's all. The latter additions are respective to the original allotments. What He meant is that a human being can live 40 years as a human being, the next 20 years as an ox, the next 20 years as a dog, and the last 28 years as an owl. That goes on even now.
So, think again! Do you still need a long life? See if Robert Louis Stevenson's words pull you out of the moral dilemma:
There is only one difference between a long life and a good dinner: that, in the dinner, the sweets come last.
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