What is Important?

What is important? When pondering this question, there are many different things that need to be taken into account. First of all, the definition is necessary. Many people go around saying that every little thing is important to them, but is that really true? Perhaps they do not know what it means to be important. The answer to this question also depends on the circumstances in which it is asked; for example, which person it is asked to or what culture they may live in. Making it equally difficult, importance is never a consistent idea; it changes with the growth of the world and people’s minds and values. Although we may never understand why something is important to someone else and not to us, we can at least know for sure what the definition is.

Each person asked to define “important” could probably give a different answer. The dictionary definition from Merriam Webster is: “Marked by or indicative of significant worth or consequence : valuable in content or relationship” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/important). Even dictionary definitions can vary, because Encarta Dictionary’s definition is simply “having value or significance.” Dictionaries, however, do not have any personality. It cannot show what may be important to a certain person or important in popular culture today. An old Chinese proverb says “a person needs a face, a tree needs bark” (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chinese_proverbs). This means that reputation is very important. As you can see, each source views it differently, and this is because of outside sources affecting their opinion.

As obviously shown above, each person views or defines importance differently. Many factors affect this, like culture, for example. Culture is the traditions and beliefs of a person or group of people. What one believes is post likely very important to them, and so therefore affected by culture. Also, ones culture or religion can affect their personal values or morals, which in turn affects what they classify as important. A person’s personality influences what is important to them. People that are rich tend to be more materialistic. Their most important things could include their phone or laptop. For people that are not as wealthy and do not have very many possessions, however, may be more concerned with family. As I stated above, many others do not know what is important to them or they may not have ever thought about it. People that do know what is important to them sometimes people put the wrong things first in their priority list, and big events in their life can serve as a wakeup call (http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/important-things-in-life/). Many of today’s teenagers seem to think that reputation, money, and friends are important. Friends are a good thing to put on your high priority list, but reputation or money may not be everyone’s first choice. There are things, like reputation and money, that are hard to tell whether they are important or not. They sure are nice to have, but want and importance are very hard to tell the difference between. Morrie Schwartz says:The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in” (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/like/the-most-important-thing-in-life-is-to-learn-how/411224/). Thomas Jefferson thought some other things were more important: “Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/important.html). These people obviously thought differently. Although when asked to name off something that is important to you and it seems simple, when one gets to thinking about it they may find that “important” is a rather abstract topic.

Everyone has something that is important to them; and not just individuals. Civilizations or countries as a whole have things important to them also. In ancient Egypt, pyramid building was an extremely difficult task and had to be so carefully planned out that it was hard to believe it could have ever been that important. I mean, after building that enormous structure, who would ever want to do it again? But pyramids were always built to honor their Pharaohs, because it was something that was important to the Egyptians. Specific things are important to specific countries, even today. Take Haiti, for example. They just underwent a huge tragedy which devastated their entire nation. Survival and rebuilding has been very important to them since that, and even before. Many countries came together to help these people, because we understand that this is really what is important, helping out neighbors and friends in need. Poorer countries like Haiti have a different set of values than rich, thriving countries like the United States. Most of the time, the United States focuses on making money and becoming one of the richest countries in the world, while in Haiti, this may be a dream, but their first thought is trying to stay alive. Views change all over the world; I don’t believe that even two people on the Earth have the exact same “important” beliefs or belongings.

Important is a very dependent term. What it is relies purely on the circumstances, which is why this question is brought about: Is anything at all actually important? This could be a whole other view on things. Nothing is really important, because we all are born and will all go back to our maker someday, some sooner than others. Some people may think this is true, and also that we just need to live life to the fullest. Period. Nothing is more important than anything else. We have a short time to live, so make every little thing be important, no matter how small or crazy it may seem. Dictionaries say that something important is something that is significant or has a significant value; is that not an entire human life? Each human life is a very important element of the world, and we should never doubt nor underestimate that. One human death is a tragedy, but when more than a hundred people die, each death is forgotten and it becomes a statistic, and that is not how it should be. We need to realize that through this one term, every human is linked, and every human feels it is important to be loved.

Websites used:

Clemens, Peter. "Important Things in Life." Motivation and Self Improvement | PickTheBrain. 25 Oct. 2007. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. .

"Chinese proverbs." Wikiquote. Wikipedia. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. .

"Quotes like the-most-important-thing-in-life-is-to-learn-how." Find the famous quotes you need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. Web. 05 Feb. 2010. .

"Important Quotes." Famous Quotes and Quotations at BrainyQuote. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. .

Images from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 27 Dec. 2004. Web. 5 Feb. 2010. .

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 26 Jan. 2010. Web. 5 Feb. 2010. .