Convictions

The environment that surrounds us provides scores of information brought to us through our senses.  Multiple systems operate in concert to help organize and filter this information.  The central nervous system (CNS) ultimately will process this information, and we have thoughts, emotions, opinions, actions or reactions (movement), feelings, desires, memories, and all sorts of things processed in this CNS. [ the skeletal system, muscle/joint, skin, respiratory, digestive, circulatory, waste removal, and reproductive systems are a few other]  Once we have these systems up and running, a series of beliefs defined as "a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing" is formed.   Mental acceptance it might be called.  A "belief system" evolves producing firm convictions that we hold to be true.  Hum...we all share this common thread...convictions.

Experience(s)

A conscious perception or apprehension of reality is another thread that binds us all to the environment that surrounds our organic platform.  These elements may be external, or internal (bodily), or mental (psychic) in origin, but they provide a means in which we all participate in these events.  On the most part these are outside our organic platform, but there may be internal sources such as reflexes, fears, emotions, and the like that past through our existence.  Occasionally, these may be clouded by sleep, faintness, and stupor which will provide an alternative experience for these perceptions.  An inward state or outward fact, coming to us in a variety of ways, are the threads that bind us all to this organic platform.

Life

Assuming normal function within the organic platform, a sequence of physical and mental experiences make up the existence we call life.  A common thread indeed it is...this thing called life.   An organismic state characterized by the capacity for metabolism [all that ATP to ADP] , reaction to stimuli [our five senses], growth, and of course reproduction.  As genealogist, we often record it as the period of birth to death, and spend a great deal of effort tracing and recording these aspects of our own ancestors.

Simply put, life is our existence as we know it.  Existence is our reality as we experience it.  Existence is our conscious perception of our environment that surrounds us.  Sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch all provide input from this environment.  Input comes from a variety of external sources which affects the experience we know as life.  A specific phase of earthly existence that is certainly shared among us all as threads that bind.