Secular Elation

reprise,

Heh, it's probably better to be in your shoes. I suppose it's better to not even bother with thinking about some nonsensical "meaning in life" junk.

Still, why it bothers some people...I think it's an innate emotional issue. Pointlessness is something that has always bothered me, in anything...if something is pointless I find little reason or value in it. The same with life. But oh well.

reprise

I guess the point I was trying to make is that I find plenty of value in the "trivial" things of which my life is comprised. Reading a good book, sharing a meal with my friends, enjoying a day of glorious weather, listening to music I like. Experiences like those are reason enough to get up each day, and I don't see them as "pointless".

I sometimes get the feeling that when people despair of finding their life "meaning" or "purpose", what they are really talking about is not feeling that they have done anything "important" with their life - something which will be talked about by generations to come. Other people who are on a quest to give their life "meaning" seem to be talking about feeling dis-satisfied and unfulfilled by what they are doing with their life - which always raises the question "why aren't you doing something which brings you satisfaction and fulfillment?".

Secular Elation

Well, sometimes I think people can't find the right things that bring them satisfaction and fulfillment, and sometimes don't know where to find it. Unfortunately, such things don't fall out of the sky.

Hey, there's a "purpose" in life - finding something that brings happiness and fulfillment to one's life.

reprise

It's my observation that many people in Western society live their life in accordance with externally imposed values until at least their middle twenties (you SHOULD get a good education, you SHOULD go to university, you SHOULD get a job in a field which offers long-term career prospects) and very often have little sense of who they are and what THEY want until they are into their thirties - by which time many are locked into legal and financial commitments (such as marriage and mortgage) which are difficult to simply abandon at will, and which take considerable time and energy to maintain. Perhaps this at least partly explains why so many people don't pursue the things which would bring satisfaction and fulfillment to their lives.

jkizer

I agree with reprise's observation, and would add that it can be difficult when one is encouraged to have a "plan for the future" by age 17 or 18, when I would say many (including myself) are not prepared or in the right frame of mind to formulate such plans, and then pressured into following through with those plans, even if they turn out to be poorly suited to one's talents and passions (which can take a good amount of time to reveal themselves).

I should add that I'm kind of extrapolating generalizations based on my own personal experience and the experiences of people I know, but I doubt that the pressures I described are peculiar to southern Ohio.

As for finding "meaning" in life, I manage to get by on experiencing the small things, such as eating a really good bowl of Ramen noodles or listening to a great song that I hadn't heard before, while holding out hope for the big things, such as finding love, etc. I wasn't any different when I was a Christian -- even though my parents are strong Christians, they always emphasized to me the importance of making use of this life for what one judges to be the best ends, and rarely talked about doing things "for God" or "as part of His plan." I strongly agree with what Virgil Tibbs said in the second paragraph -- in the end, we are the ones deciding what actions we will undertake to create "meaning" in our lives, even if we ascribe those actions to some divine plan.