I wrote a letter to a friend concerning my current existential crisis. This is what it looked like.
The whole meaning of life thing - upon reading the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, life’s pretty meaningless, apart from fulfilling the Golden Rule, enjoying the things you buy with your labor and sharing that stuff with loved ones. Everything is a means to achieving those ends. From an economist’s point of view, if you have a job that gets you more “stuff” for your time - all the power to you. Ideally, we all want to work as little as possible and enjoy as much as we can. Some pursue love or some ideal, whereas others are content to trade their youth away to amass enough capital so they can enter semi-retirement at age 41. Whatever blows yer hair back - I seriously think there’s no one specific way of going about making the most out of this life.
Think about the times you were at your happiest, most joyful, where you felt most alive, and consider what it took to get you there. Some people are happy with a six pack of beer, a junior bacon cheeseburger and a tummy rub; others require a bottle of Dom Perignon, a steak and a massage to get there. There’s no one set way or rule that applies to everyone. Who knows - you might be a corporate bootlicking drone forever, and if you’re happy doing that - that’s A-1 awesome. Or, if you’re happy running an Asian escort service between hits off the bong as your Thai cabana boys/girls fan you with palm leaves, then that’s just as cool, too.
As they say in fight club - this is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time. The past is the past, and there;s no way to change it. The future’s not primised, as any of us could die in our sleep. All we’ve really got is this moment to contemplate whether or not eternity is real.
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knsheppard 05.31.07 at 7:54 am
Interesting. But, even if you read the other books of the Bible that ‘Solomon’ wrote, and even within Ecclesiastes itself, there is no one voice speaking. Ecclesiastes ends up almost where it begins: fear God, and it will go well with you - even though all those caveats and counter-assertions are mentioned.
As for the good life. Does what you say amount to: do what is good for you, what makes you happy, and leave others to what they think makes them happy too?
Karsten Theofel 03.09.08 at 7:41 am
Hello
I search a nice girl for write letters.
I come from Germany and work as an Navy Seal on a Minehunter.I like to learn Englich an like to travel in other contrys.Im 29 years old and like party with my frinds.
For all messages thanks
Karsten