What is the meaning of life?
Walking into a room and seeing this question written on the board can mean nothing good. Answering this question is possibly the greatest conundrum humans can face because every answer that is given can also be debunked. But, this begs the question of why must we answer this question?
Who ever decided that life has to have meaning? By agonizing over the answer, we are fulfilling the expectation given to us through society that nothing can simply be. We've all experienced the class where a teacher stands in front of the room and asks a question along the lines of; "why did the author make the curtains red? What does this mean?" (this happened a lot while we read Jane Eyre in my class). My automatic response, and I'm sure many others', is maybe the author wanted red curtains so they are simply red. This one detail, and response the teacher is looking for, probably cannot contribute much to the story and perhaps we shouldn't focus a whole 48 minute period to it.
While life is not as simple as a detail like the color of the curtains, I have the same response. If life is something that we only get to experience once, we should be able to accept the inevitability that throughout life one experiences many different emotions. But, if life is enjoyable, it does not need meaning, in fact struggling to find or create meaning of life prohibits you from experiencing it in it's raw form. Any answer you come up with is a lie because, in finding this answer, you have prohibited yourself from living life thus, your answer cannot be accurate since you have not experienced it. Since it is also said that everyone experiences life in a different way, there is no outcome that would be applicable to all of life. So when I'm asked, "what is the meaning of life?" I respond, "why does it need one?"
I agree that life does not need a meaning and I think it is a good point that everyone experiences it differently. I think if everyone was constantly searching for a meaning of life, we'd all go crazy. So if we want to debate why the curtains were red, we should, but that doesn't mean we have to do that for everything in the world because some things just are and that's it.
ReplyDeleteThe red curtains example is great- I completely agree. I feel the same discomfort talking about the purpose of life that I feel talking about visual art or music. Not that it's bad to acknowledge the way something makes you feel, especially if you're passionate about it, but sometimes i'd like to just let it be. All art forms are meant to be felt, and I hate to see those feelings misrepresented with words or talked about in a way that is forced. It's okay to just let it happen for what it is.
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