Meaning of life
I found it interesting that a reader has been asking around about the meaning of life. I can't blame him, I often do the same thing. Interestingly (or rather, should it be obviously), no one has yet come up with an answer, and some tell me coming up with an answer would spoil it. Personally, I do find it rather perplexing that we can barely answer the question 'what is life for' and still continue onwards with it with such overwhelming zeal. Perhaps that is why they dub it the human condition - the species which has done so much for its survival and enhancement without even understanding and penetrating the meaning of it.
I can form a halfway decent answer: that we human beings live life as ending it is too painful, and taking it to the pinnacle is too much pleasure, neither of which most of us could handle as both require tremendous effort. Hence we spread the feelings and go on with it with a semblance of the much desired 'stability'. This balancing act, as has been identified starting from the Greeks, might be a weak definition of life as we now experience and understand. But then again, it has the folly of defining 'the process' rather than 'the why' of it. Frankly, I am not sure human beings would ever understand it; or if we even do (or might have done), if the answer is not favourable to our skewed psyches, accept it even.
Despite such directionless metaphysical wondering, as the above two paragraphs surely are, I believe we should still continue to try to define life and its meaning. Even this lack of comprehension is enlightening and can make us wiser.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments