A friend asks: “why should life perpetuate itself?”
In objective reality there is no should: there is only is. Life is the source of all value, all shoulds.
In the world of life, life creates ideas of good and worthwhile, and identifies itself with them as the source of goodness and pleasure and love.
These identifications are self-fulfilling.
In the world of life, healthy life perpetuates itself because life is good.
Sick life, that hates itself and is tired of goodness and pleasure and love, lets itself wither and die. It disappears, and healthy life lives on.
Life exists so that shoulds can exist.