Purpose
..so, what are ya' in for?
I was sitting around the dorm room, downing a 2-Liter of Pepsi, fretting about a tough project and thinking about the meaning of life.
Folks, this is an accurate description of the majority of the time I don't spend sitting around in class or helping people out with classwork.
You'd think I'd get somewhere, but all I've got is a high minded mish-mash which I am staunchly adamant about.
To wit:
Proposition: The purpose of life is to serve the best interests of mankind according to the dictates of one's own core value system.
Service is the key in my book. A life not in the service of other human beings (as well as one's self) seems to me the epitome of nihility (had to look that gem up!)
Now once I recognized that this was my perspective I had to carry it to its logical conclusions.
The myriad entertainers, the athletes, the multi-billionaires were all so many leaves in the wind. At least as defined by the aforementioned labels.
To be a Bill Gates or Michael Jordan was a simply a colossal waste of time. If one only considers, the traits (wealth and athletic ability) that made them famous.
Sound sappy? It gets worse.
Next I juxtapose it with other thoughts on purpose. A friend of mine seems to have his meter set on wealth and especially legacy.
He places value on being remembered.
Being remembered fondly, except for services rendered, has no value. The forgotten school teacher goes to her a grave a more fulfilled person than the mourned pop singer.
Understand that when I say that, I don't just mean on the inside. Or that a servant on his death bed is somehow more comforted than a person who did not fulfill their purpose.
Corollary: Fulfilled purpose is an absolute, not to be confused with satisfaction which is relative.
The janitor who wails with despair at life's end over dashed dreams and wasted years, may well have been more purposeful than a millionaire who nods of to bed for the last time with a smile on his face.
One last morsel...
Postulate: Fulfilled purpose is of greater value than satisfaction and is to be sought whenever the two are in conflict.
The meaning of life will not change (I refuse to edit it :P), it is our part therefore to adjust our attitudes to find happiness in it.
Happiness... sounds like the stuff of another post.
Signing off from la-la-land...
I was sitting around the dorm room, downing a 2-Liter of Pepsi, fretting about a tough project and thinking about the meaning of life.
Folks, this is an accurate description of the majority of the time I don't spend sitting around in class or helping people out with classwork.
You'd think I'd get somewhere, but all I've got is a high minded mish-mash which I am staunchly adamant about.
To wit:
Proposition: The purpose of life is to serve the best interests of mankind according to the dictates of one's own core value system.
Service is the key in my book. A life not in the service of other human beings (as well as one's self) seems to me the epitome of nihility (had to look that gem up!)
Now once I recognized that this was my perspective I had to carry it to its logical conclusions.
The myriad entertainers, the athletes, the multi-billionaires were all so many leaves in the wind. At least as defined by the aforementioned labels.
To be a Bill Gates or Michael Jordan was a simply a colossal waste of time. If one only considers, the traits (wealth and athletic ability) that made them famous.
Sound sappy? It gets worse.
Next I juxtapose it with other thoughts on purpose. A friend of mine seems to have his meter set on wealth and especially legacy.
He places value on being remembered.
Being remembered fondly, except for services rendered, has no value. The forgotten school teacher goes to her a grave a more fulfilled person than the mourned pop singer.
Understand that when I say that, I don't just mean on the inside. Or that a servant on his death bed is somehow more comforted than a person who did not fulfill their purpose.
Corollary: Fulfilled purpose is an absolute, not to be confused with satisfaction which is relative.
The janitor who wails with despair at life's end over dashed dreams and wasted years, may well have been more purposeful than a millionaire who nods of to bed for the last time with a smile on his face.
One last morsel...
Postulate: Fulfilled purpose is of greater value than satisfaction and is to be sought whenever the two are in conflict.
The meaning of life will not change (I refuse to edit it :P), it is our part therefore to adjust our attitudes to find happiness in it.
Happiness... sounds like the stuff of another post.
Signing off from la-la-land...
posted by Turnea at
9:52 PM
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