Existential Quandary CXIXb

Before the workday officially begins, perhaps it would be a good time to finish defining this latest quandary.

Not so long ago I recall having a conversation like this one:

Co-Worker: "Why don't you do ?"
Me: "Why would I do that?"
Co-Worker: "Well, because it's fun! I did it and it was a blast!"
Me: "I don't really think that having fun is a valid reason for doing something. What's really accomplished after all?"

My version of reality stated simply that in order for something to be meaningful it had to accomplish something. If nothing else, the thing you're doing must improve you in some way so that you'll be better able to do some unspecified activity later.

The problem with this, of course, is that eventually you drop dead. Read all the books you want but eventually all that effort goes to waste unless you can put it to some practical use. The same goes for any activity no matter how relentlessly self-improving. My wife rails on about not being "the richest man in the graveyard" but the same idea can be applied to other forms of personal capital. There's similarly no point in being the "best read man in the graveyard" either unless that knowledge somehow leads you to a more lucrative or enjoyable profession.

So, six months ago I would have claimed that simply having fun was pointless but it seems clear now that perhaps having fun is really the ONLY point to anything. All the unpleasantness in life is suffered merely to enable us to have fun later. One studies in childhood to get a job later. One works today to earn money to have enjoyment and leisure later. Ultimately then, the highest purpose of life is to increase the enjoyment of ourselves and others. This, of course, can take a hundred different forms from doing your job in such a way that it helps others do theirs to simply complimenting a stranger in the grocery store because she chose your favorite color of nail polish. A million trivially easy acts can add to the sum total of human pleasure. As long as personal pleasure is not gained at the expense of others I'd judge that an act is inherently 'good'.

My primary complaint, if any is to be had, is that nobody bothered to tell me this secret of life before. Enough people have received the speech above that at least one must have been capable of revealing the obvious flaw in my logic. I've labored away under a self-delusion that cost me years of possible enjoyment. This is not to say, of course, that I plan from now on to lead a life of total dissipation but it tends to reorder one's priorities significantly.