The Meaning of Life

Introduction

In two days, we will commemorate the day the Twin Towers destroyed by planes on 9/11. We are amid a global pandemic. A pandemic that should have ended in April 2021. Americans who distrust our government, medical institutions, while favoring street drugs over pharmaceuticals. In lieu of this, many Americans have begun to wonder; what does it all mean? What is the meaning of life itself? Is this life all there is? Even those citizens who want to live and take every precaution have a distrust of the institutions tasked with safety and security. Are we faced with another case of “enemies from within”?

The Issues

A simple Google search on the issues facing America generates topics such as:

1. Collapsing Levels of Trust Are Devastating America 
2. Why Are Americans So Distrustful of Each Other?
3. Falling Trust in Government Makes It Harder to Solve Problems, Americans Say

What is at the core of this distrust in America today? How does this affect the meaning of life? A study published by Statista Research Department on July 7, 2021, showed that 22 percent of respondents said that poor leadership and a general dissatisfaction with the government were the most important problems facing the United States. What else? Well, of course the coronavirus is listed as another reason for distrust in the United States. Covid-19 is distorting the actual meaning of life. (https://www.statista.com)

What is the meaning of life?

Sitting at the dog park in Tukwila, Washington I conducted an impromptu poll. Out of nine dog owners, owning various breeds including husky, poodle, German shepherd, and boxer, the meaning of life is having a healthy, happy dog. I must say that of the nine dog owners, one was a male over 50 years old. What are the chances that if I polled cat owners their answers may be a happy, aloof, healthy feline is the meaning of life or gives meaning to life?

Since this is 2021, I asked Siri. Per Siri the meaning of life is:

“We are all just a speck in the vastness of time and space. But do not let that dishearten you. It takes every single part of us to make the beautiful mosaic that is our universe.”

The meaning of life and what gives meaning to life is living. Just live?

Grace Welker Downing wrote The Holy Springtime which says:

The flowers that bloom through the summer,

In the fall will be dead,

And all winter long ‘neath the cover of snow

The flower’s beauty is hidden.

But when the bright springtime comes,

To waken them from their sleep,

Their hidden beauty again will appear,

Their soft petals again will be sweet.

So it is with the people:

For when God sees best, 

After their summer of ceaseless bloom,

He will give them a winter’s rest.

He will cause the fall winds

To make them drop and die.

And we will long for those beautiful flowers,

As the winter days go by.

But the springtime, too, will come to them,

And God will waken them all, 

O, then, how pure, and sweet and holy, 

They will bloom to answer his call!

God will be the Gardener,

In that Great Garden of Flowers,

And all the time of eternity

Is filled with bright springtime hours.

Siri referred me to Nietzsche who posits that for him, answers to philosophy’s ultimate questions do not exist; in fact, in asking such questions, we abandon the real purpose of life, which is to live creatively and boldly. I agree wholeheartedly.

Thank you.

“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.”

“When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”

“Nothing on earth consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment.”

“Become who you are.”

Nietzsche, https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/knowledge-of-men/nietzsches-66-best-aphorisms/

I once married a man whom I thought was wise like Nietzsche, turned out he was a drug addict and mostly full of shite. That’s life. I laugh about him now! He is the source of many belly laughs for me…I am grateful for this gift always. He would be so high he couldn’t speak clearly but he thought he was being so prolific. It was funny to me for a time then it began to be worrisome lastly, I began to realize that he was just a plain junky who regurgitated wise words from others. Again, it just made me chuckle and does so today. The bottom line is what gives meaning to “my” life is sobriety and making decisions based on reality and not fantasy or delusions.

The greatest lesson I have ever learned is the choices I made in my twenties were RIGHT.

Coletha Albert

“We are all just a speck in the vastness of time and space. But do not let that dishearten you. It takes every single part of us to make the beautiful mosaic that is our universe.” – Siri