On Life

So honestly, what the hell is the point of it all? To be clear, this isn’t a nihilistic diatribe about the hopelessness of existence but in actually it is exactly the opposite. At this exact moment, I have so many directions that I could take my free time that I’m more than a bit at a loss as to which to choose. Seriously! Look… right now I could be….

* …downloading, for free, the greatest literature in the history of mankind. Now more than ever the wisdom of the ages is banging on our doors waiting for us to consume it. Best of all, it doesn’t cost us a blasted thing. In years past you would have at least had to go to the bookstore but now the whole of history is here for you. Covet the Library of Alexandria all you want, you still had to unroll the scrolls.

* … listening to the most soul-searing music ever made that speaks to us at a visceral level unthinkable fifty years ago. As with the literature, I can do most of this for free if I choose wisely.

* … making contact with complex and amazing human minds that have a lifetime of experience to add to my own. More than ever, humans are just completely and utterly interesting. Because the world has opened to us, we all have a little something to add. We’re not digging in the dirt any longer, trying to scrape out a simple living. We’re all a part of the larger world and we all have a unique perspective that isn’t rooted in the hedgerows and byways of the countryside.

* … creating and sharing something new (and hopefully interesting) with the rest of humanity. It is boggling to think that 100 years ago it would have been nearly impossible to reach the same audience that is accessible to us today by a simple web page. Every day someone from some far-flung clime reads the random burbling on my blog. That would have been unthinkable a century ago. My tiny voice would have gone only as far as my ability to print and hand out fliers.

All this brings me around to a simple question, however. What exactly IS the point of any of it? We have so much available to us. We can go so far and see so much yet what is really the right thing to do? Should I pursue a simple lifestyle based in making myself as happy as possible or is it really necessary to create something new, to contribute to the total body of work of humanity to have any sort of meaningful existence? Is it enough to toil on mindlessly and promote the position of one’s progeny (by earning enough money to send them to Harvard?) or must one do more in order to be truly meaningful? Why live? What to do while we’re here? Such heady questions with such diverse and fluffy answers.