People do an inordinate amount of things when they are alive, from good to bad, from useful to useless, from hateful to helpful, and so and so forth. Yet, many people don't want to face up to the fact that eventually their physical body will give out and therefore their physical life will be no more. Some people like to believe or to fool themselves into believing that this life is all that there ever was or ever will be, in which such a foolish philosophy often leads to a life that fundamentally is flawed, because without knowing the end, the purpose of such seems to be ephemeral. Then, there are others that believe this life is their only life to be on earth, but even with that "knowledge" they aren't able to stay focused on what really matters for those that fail to prioritize the eternal over the temporal, aren't going to be finding a very satisfying after life. So too, there are others, more perceptive, that understand that life must be a cycle, of the inevitable birth, death, and re-birth, in which, the objective of such is to actually improve oneself so as to get back to the ultimate First Cause, which is the Creator of it all, understanding that earth is really a proving ground, testing who and what we really are, so that for those that wish to soldier on with God, they must be in harmony with He who is perfect Harmony.
It is therefore, rather disappointing, that so much time and effort is generated to do all sorts of material things, of which some, no doubt, are of considerable merit, whereas others are just variations of "killing time", whereas every minute of every day should actually be spent in pursuit or in conformance of the only thing that really matters, the Man behind the curtain. Still, mankind has made tremendous progress in the sciences, in the arts, and in mathematics, because those making such pursuits and those following these trailblazers, recognize implicitly as well as often explicitly that the design of all that we see and all that we record, is not random, never has been random, but comes from the very hands of the most intelligent and intricate design-maker, of which, to be at the feet of such an incomprehensible genius, is really a privilege and worthy of our devoted homage.
You would think, that governments, that nations, and that families, would recognize the value of being in the pursuit of their Creator, as compared to pursuing material wealth, or aggrandizement of power, or of selfishness or greed, so that the world would definitely be a more pleasant place to be, but the world so often behaves as if it really doesn’t have a sensible clue. This means, that many people, in many ways, aren't about much more than making sure to take care of their own, which just might be only themselves, and have little interest in self-sacrifice, egoless, or less of anything that doesn't benefit their own desires, and takes no prisoners with those that stand in their way.
But, the sad thing is, while we go round and round that merry-go-round, trying to grab that brass ring, is that when we inevitably meet our point of death, we aren't going to be saying how much we wish we had been greedier, or more selfish, or more bigoted or less inclusive, rather we will be saying, unless our life has been in exceedingly good order, that we wish we had been: "more patient, more loving, more caring, more understanding, more generous, and less judgmental, and less evil", ruing our mistakes, foras it has been said, you most certainly will reap what you have sowed.