Meaning of Life

I was talking to a close friend recently. She was pretty stressed out about work, school and personal problems; she didn’t know what the purpose of all her work, studies and struggles. “It is like being in the water”, she said, as if “I keep swimming back and forth and can never get anywhere”. I asked her if she was looking for the purpose of her life, to which she quickly replied “yes”. As we kept talking, it turns out she was looking for the ultimate answer, the “one” answer, the MOA (mother of all answers), what was the purpose to all we do in life, what is the ultimate goal, what is the meaning of life. I thought for a moment about this and had thought about how many times I have asked myself the same question. How many times had I been frustrated by the complexities of the world without a place to turn, questioning my self and question my purpose, why do I have to do anything? I remember thinking, as she was now, “where am I going with this”.

Many, many times I have wondered the same question my friend now had and though about what my answer had been. I have always been a deep thinker, at least that is what I’d like to believe, and thought that I had never had been able to produce an answer. I knew what I wanted, yes; I wanted to do well in life and to just be happy. But then I realized that there is no answer. To ask what the purpose of life is to try to answer a question that is still being formulated, a question that has just started to take shape and that would never really finish evolving.

So why then limit our self with a question as such? Truth is that is just human nature, we need answers to everything; we need answers on, where to begin and where to end, why did we start and why do we end. We assume that everything has a beginning and an end just because we have a beginning and an end. I told Daniele, why waste your time worrying about where you need to swim to, why not “swim” because you like to “swim” why not enjoy the water and let the current take you where it may, enjoy the nice warm water but also know that the water sometimes is cold and rough, but don’t fight it or you’ll get tired and drown, use the water itself to stay afloat, after all the meaning of life is not some goal you reach but journey that needs to be taken and the satisfaction is on the turns you take on this “path”