I have said it many times before in these columns, and I’m inspired to say this again.

You did not ask to be born. Neither did I. For good or for bad, you and I didn’t pick our parents. I don’t recall God telling me I was to be born soon and I was shown a collection of mothers and fathers that I could choose from. Do you?

The website Valorgi recently did some interesting math to help us understand how we got into this thing we call life.

To be born, you needed two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, 16 great, great grandparents, 32 third great grandparents, 64 fourth great grandparents, 128 fifth great grandparents, 256 sixth great grandparents, 512 seventh great grandparents, 1,024 eighth great grandparents, and 2,048 ninth great grandparents.

Over the past 12 generations, spanning approximately 400 years, you needed a total of 4,094 ancestors to come into existence. We are all the result of thousands of lives, choices and sacrifices that came before us.

Now we all know that we are the result of a physical act that doesn’t need explanation, but don’t you ever wonder about the probability that something spiritual made the initial decision to have us come into life, and that something spiritual also hand-picked the parents who would physically create us?

To me, this thought opens up a whole new set of questions. Why are some born with silver spoons in their mouths while others go hungry because of abject poverty? Why are some born to grow up and choose vocations that help others while others become angry adults who commit crimes and acts of violence?

We have all heard stories coming from incarcerated lifers that say they never knew their fathers and their mothers were drug addicts, and that’s why they lived a life of crime. Yet, there are exceptions. Take Ireland’s Katriona O’Sullivan. She was raised and abused by drug addict parents and left neglected and broke. When she was 5 years old, she found her father lying on the floor, overdosed and unconscious, with a syringe stuck in his arm. He was later arrested for selling drugs. She smuggled drugs to him during her visits to the prison. While he was behind bars, Katriona, at age 7, was raped by a friend of the family. When she told her mother, the reply was, “Yeah, he raped me too.”

Katriona went to school in filthy clothes and smelling of urine because she had no soap or towels or even a toothbrush at home. One of her teachers showed her love and practical support to help clean her up, but it was not yet the end of the road for her trials and tribulations.

As a teenager, Katriona was arrested for fighting and stealing and became a drug addict. At age 15, she became pregnant and homeless until another teacher found her and urged her to return to school. Today, after earning her Ph.D, Dr. Katriona O’Sullivan teaches at a school filled with poor children. She dresses in jeans and a hoodie so she can relate at their level and tell them her story.

Why she rose above extreme burdens to succeed and why an inmate somewhere in this country blames his poor upbringing for his failure is puzzling. It gets back to the fact of being born into a life we never asked for. It’s like somebody comes to me and gives me a million dollars and now I have to decide what to do with it. I can invest it wisely or squander every nickel until it’s gone. We can choose to find our purpose, or we can act as if we are disappointed that 4,094 ancestors contributed to the gift of our presence in this world and we’re just going to throw that gift away.

We have all been given opportunities to do something with our lives that not only are rewarded by the standard of living that we earn, but we also have opportunities to help others to live good lives as well. It’s as if we should all receive a letter attached to our birth certificates that is written for us to read when we are old enough to understand.

Dear Birth Child:

Congratulations! You have been awarded the gift of your life. Here are some suggestions about what to do with it. Never take your life for granted. On the day that you were born, 150,000 people in the world had died. Someday you will be one of that number so your time here is temporary. Spend less of your time complaining about yourself and about others and more of it helping to improve your well-being and the relationships you have with family and friends. With your birth, you were also given the opportunity to find your purpose, to open the gift of yourself before the world and give this gift away as your legacy. Whether it be building birdhouses, writing poetry or using your sense of humor to make people laugh, everyone has a talent and that talent should be shared and not kept to yourself.

There will be good days and bad days. You will laugh. You will cry. At the end of your years, whether they be long or short in numbers, make the best effort to live a life of appreciation and gratitude for all your ancestors who contributed to your earthly existence.

And when the day comes when you will take your last breath, have no regrets for what you did with your life and let your goodness remain beyond your years in the memories of others.

This will have been a life worth living.

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com