Life Is Anything But Pointless
I’ve always been a glass half full fellow as anyone who knows me can attest to. That was somehow my starting position in life from which I have been fortunate to build a comfortable mental home upon. I can’t quite explain my own perennial optimism and attitudes, though I have my theories. So it’s even harder for me to understand folks who by all standards have enjoyed good fortune, a loving safe home, yet who are sullen, depressed, filled with anxiety and above all this, have a foreboding sense of pointlessness or worse, worthlessness.
I know full well that many of us have neural chemistry that differs but that doesn’t explain the epidemic of mental health issues we see today since we have the same brains as always, so something else is going on. Also, the lack of such mental issues in isolated tribes or certain communities shows that a good portion of mental health is controlled by Nurture and not Nature. Maybe we have unknown toxins in our environment making subtle changes to our brain chemistry and some are more vulnerable. Maybe we have a growing backdrop of social anxiety about violence, climate, politics, computers, etc. I don’t know. But I do know we have some power to alter our feelings about the world and how we react to it.
First, just because we don’t know the point of life, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have one. No one said the point of life was obvious or easy to see or discover. In fact, it may be quite tricky and difficult to know the answer, if there is one. Second, why even look for the point of a flower or the Moon? Does it really matter what the point of any particular thing is? How would knowing the point make your life better? What would it even mean? Why does the Moon perfectly block the Sun in an eclipse? Coincidence? BFD? It could easily appear smaller in the sky or bigger but no, it PERFECTLY matches the Sun so we can see the corona. That’s just cool! Third, what makes you think you are qualified to judge the point of existence, based on what expertise? That question may be above our “pay grade.” Of course, you may not be trying to figure out the point of everything for me, but just for you, I get it. I can’t tell you my “point” and you can’t tell me your “non point.” But, we can both agree some things are truly amazing and beyond our understanding and that’s a great starting point—embrace the MYSTERY!
What’s the point of teeth? To chew food? To smile with? To bite someone? To help us talk and sing? To have something that can be knocked out? Because some part of our skeleton needed to stick out? To give dentists something to do? To help you live so YOU can help another? All the above? None of the above? It doesn’t really matter and we can’t expect an easy answer. Teeth simply ARE and that fantastically improbable fact alone gives them all the point they need. There are countless such things that really don’t need a point for us to enjoy or use them. If you used your teeth today to eat, smile or talk, perhaps that WAS the point. Millions of years of evolution and you got to use the results to bite into a warm croissant and taste the deliciousness, if for a moment and smile!
What is life but a series of moments, an ever changing NOW, forever creating a PAST and forever pointing to a FUTURE we can’t know. The point of life can be the now and I’m OK with that but I think it’s much more. Those looking for an ultimate reason or point of life often point to the future of certain demise and oblivion but don’t forget this now is also a future of the past, one where you didn’t even exist. But now you do, and you are reading this and that IS the point.
Some say all this is for naught. Everyone you love will die. People will hurt you, turn on you. You will toil away, suffer great losses and end up in the same hole in the ground as everyone else. The Earth will spin out of control with climate change and endless wars. Why bother? This is a very human way to overanalyze the world or to invite into your mind all the burdens of the world instead of simply enjoying BEING while the going is good or better, becoming motivated to do good, to help improve the world for yourself and for others.
Of course if everything is pointless it also has no purpose. We know teeth at least have some purpose, if not only to allow us to survive by eating. Indeed, many would claim that all of our purpose is only as a function of Darwinian evolution—to survive and propagate the species. But that would also include caring for others in order to maximize our survival. Why would you care about animals or starving children around the world if everything is for your survival alone? I suppose your kindness could be attractive to a potential mate and so there is an evolutionary angle. While everything can be explained in evolutionary, mechanical terms it doesn’t always provide a satisfactory explanation. It hasn’t explained consciousness for example. Any theory on what makes us self-aware always presupposes some other “mystery” and comes up short of a self-evident proof. We simply are not sure about consciousness, though we think we have it.
We can look for our own point in what we enjoy and care about. Do you enjoy music? Food? Friends? Pets? Looking at art? Nature? A good book? A fleeting fragrance? Do you care about your family? Your friends? The Earth? Animals? All the above? So in that enjoyment and caring is there no purpose?
If you are enjoying a moment of being, that is your purpose at that moment. A gift of life. A miracle of delightful conscious existence. If you can feel Love from others and even better, give Love to others you are partaking in the highest purpose ever conceived. We are all destined for moments of sadness, bereavement and despondency, because of our Love. But in between those moments, the same Love can become a shield and a sword to do good, to pass that Love along, to lift each other and fulfill our purpose and to BE.
