On The Other Hand…

When you look at nature, you can see purpose in everything.  To the casual observer it may look as if trees and plants do no more than grow, exist and die.  However, a closer look reveals that they provide habitats for countless animals, birds and insects, and the provide oxygen and food for the planet.  Without them we could not survive.  The trees and other plants make a contribution to the planet; they have a purpose

~ Brendan Nicols in Your Soul Purpose

The contrast between the above book passage which I came across recently and my previous post reminds me of the contrast between two of my favourite quotes:

Do something that makes you happy, that makes you love the day. Life is not a series of tests to pass or fail – life is a delight and an adventure.

~ Anon

(I found this in a magazine once when I was a teenager and have kept it ever since)

Contrast this:

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.

~ Leo Rosten

I have always loved this pair of quotes because they seem to contradict each other and yet they both speak to some fundamental core truth within me.  I guess the phenomenon was summed up best by another great thinker:

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

~ Niels Bohr

Despite all my wannabe existential nihilism that I spout from time to time, I just can’t escape the feeling that there has to be a purpose to all of this.  And,  more to the immediate point, a purpose to me.  I cannot be content to just ‘be’ without purpose.  I have this deep sense that I came here to do something, to serve some function, to acheive some end – even if that end is just my own evolution and growth.  And yet even that doesn’t feel right to me, that I should enter this life and this body solely for my own benefit.  I feel that I am meant for something, that I have something to give – to people, to the world.  I just can’t for the life of me figure out what it is.

I guess what I’m saying is that any time I harp on optimistically about the joyous meaninglessness of life, I’m actually full of shit.  What I’m doing is overcompensating for my utter sense of desperation in the fact that I ultimately can’t shake the belief that life – my life and all life – does have a purpose and my utter frustration at not being able to figure out what the hell it is. 

Do I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy?  Yes.  But ultimately, I think the truest happiness comes from finding your unique purpose and living it with all you’re worth.  You will never be truly happy until you are giving, being and doing what you came here to give, be and do.

Maybe I’ve just realised that opting for upbeat nihilism is really opting for defeat – it is giving up on the quest.

Emily will never give up on the quest. 

One day, one of these rainbows will lead to the pot of gold.  If it’s not this next one then hell – there will always be other rainbows.

Someone else again summed it up perfectly:

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

~ Morrie Schwartz

I’m determined to find my own purpose, my own sense of meaning and my own contribution to make.  For now, I identify strongly with one of my favourite song lyrics:

I’m on my feet, I’m on the floor, I’m good to go
All I need is just to hear a song I know
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine
Wanna fall in love tonight

~ Praise Chorus, performed by Jimmy Eat World