Life

Whether you’re a young child or a well-educated philosopher, you’ve most likely pondered the meaning of life before. But that’s not what this post is about. I want to talk less about some arbitrary meaning of life and focus on the typical lifestyle of the modern day. It’s frightening how repetitive and pointless we are in this perspective.

So how about a simple breakdown of the average life:

1. We’re born.
2. We go to school.
3. We get a job.
4. We have a family.
5. We die.

Granted, one could argue that I have the “middle steps” out of order, but that’s not the point. Either way you cut it, our lives are pretty pointless. We frown upon materialism, but isn’t that exactly what a typical upbringing is trying to promote? We don’t go to school for “the heck of it.” Education gives us an inlet to attain a stable and worthwhile job. Why do we need this? Well, obviously, we need to make a living. What does that mean? We need a place to live, some means of transportation, nourishment, etc. Just think about it… as a society composed of “intelligent” individuals, we have very little to show for it.

Now don’t get me wrong. There have been noteworthy individuals out there who genuinely lived a meaningful life, but as a whole, humanity just sucks. We’re too caught up in our lives to care for the greater good of our race as a whole.

Am I the only one troubled by this? How do we go about doing something which isn’t a part of this repetitive cycle of life? Yes, I’m going to be a doctor and hopefully have the privilege of healing countless patients, but that will be my “profession”. It’s what I’ll be trained to do on a day-to-day basis. But how do I do something which isn’t tied to work or my self-betterment? Something which is outside of this world, but still universally important. Something which matters.

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