The Meaning of Life

Even if you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, you are likely familiar with the famous yet humorous answer to the meaning of life: 42. Just a number. The original author didn’t intend any deeper meaning and stresses that it means nothing. Ironically I think like everything in life, it holds an ounce of truth beyond what we see in it.

People have searched far and wide to answer the question of why we’re here, or more personally what their purpose in life is. It’s something we either don’t like to talk about because we feel insecure about ourselves, or it’s something we boast about with great confidence due to our abilities. In my opinion the truth is neither, in that the meaning of your life is not within your own skills and abilities.

In a 2020 Disney movie called Soul, the main character is convinced their life purpose is to play jazz piano. Through a series of events he slowly realizes that while jazz is his “spark” and perhaps his favorite part of being alive, it’s not his purpose. We all eventually die one day and generally history will not remember us at all, not even our distant descendants. We get the idea that our life needs some grand purpose because we see others in history being recognized for their achievements.. What we miss is the context. We only see from afar what their life looked like and then project that definition of purpose upon ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong, I think you should still have a purpose driven life. It’s good to have a desire and passion to do great things in the world; it’s in our nature. What I am saying is don’t confuse it with the meaning of your life. In an instant, your ability to chase goals or pursuits can be taken away. For those who have experienced it, the feeling of having no purpose is real.

So what is the meaning of life? Well, I would be foolish to think I know the true answer, but I will tell you what it means for me now.

The meaning of life, is to live.

A pivotal scene in Soul is when he looks back through all the things he experienced in his life that were not playing jazz piano, and how they gave him life:

Riding a bike in the summer

Listening to music with his father

Eating the best slice of pizza

Teaching a kid to play the drums

Eating a humble yet amazing slice of pecan pie

Feet in the sand on a sunset beach

Sure, I have a passion for trying to build a more safe and more free version of the internet, but I also love my kids, my wife, the sound of a stream in the woods, the taste of Italian wine, the feeling of a cool breeze, and the sight of a cloudy hill in a far away country.

Life is so much more than what you might be passionate about, and if you’re not careful, you’ll get lost. So next time you find yourself taking a beating over finding meaning and purpose in life, think of the simple things that make you alive. Don’t lose site of what’s right in front of you.

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”

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