What is Best in Life?

You've seen the movie, or at the very least the scene. Conan the Barbarian sits with fellow warriors and questions the meaning of life. The chief asks his men what the best in life is.

This is relevant. After all, the tag line of this blog is "the good things in life". Do I think that cool toys and great food are the best things in life? Well, if I claimed toys to be the best thing in life, I would be very materialistic. But at the same time there is a certain truth to it. Opening a cool action figure, building Lego, looking at massive collections, reading up on the history of toys, talking about toys with others. All this makes me happy, as any hobby would to an enthusiast.


Food, on the other hand, is necessary for a life, and good food makes a good life.
For instance a decent, spontaneous barbecue. Chicken, sausage bits, meatballs, mushrooms, onion, tomatoes, all drenched in a mix of barbecue sauce and hot chili sauce. Grilled out in the open.

Good food means a good life. I would argue that this is universal. At least it goes hand in hand. A good life will give opportunities to obtain, cook and eat good food, and good food will for most people improve life quality.

Conan, though, is not most people. The other, lesser warriors try to give a valid answer to what is best in life, and ramble on about riding horses and watching the ocean. The chief denies them, and lets Conan give the correct one. To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of the women. That is best in life.

Now, obviously I don't condone the act of killing your enemies, but then again, Conan never says a word about killing. I get where Conan is coming from, and I absolutely agree that there is an intense satisfaction in defeating your opponents. There are many ways in doing so. It could be in sports, simply defeating the opposing team or athlete. It could be proving those who never believed you wrong. It could be defeating your own doubts in yourself. Am I reading too much into a quote from an old movie? Maybe, but people are reading a lot more into lesser mediums than Conan the Barbarian (1982). Finally, to witness crying women is not my thing, but I can't fault Conan for taking pleasure in such things.

I still maintain my initial perspective though. The best things in life are cool toys and great food... among other things.