What's It All About?

It is quite common for people to talk about the necessity of meaning in a good life. People really do care about the questions; "What's it all about? What does it all mean? What's the point?" Or at least people who aren't contented and happy ask those questions. I rather get the impression that people who are happy with how things are don't bother with such questions, they are too busy just doing what they like.

The presence of these sort of questions is rather interesting. After all these questions assume that there is something that it is all about, that there is a meaning to our lives, that there is a point to what is happening. The evidence is that the Universe operates according to a set of physical laws and that our existence came about as a result of certain circumstances, that is that we just came to being because of how things were. This suggests no point at all. Yet the human brain looks for patterns, meaning, a goal in almost everything. The familiar phrases of a relationship, "What does this mean to you?" or "Where is this relationship going?" are questions that occur between two people who presumably are together because they like it.

Any response that there is inherent meaning in our lives or the Universe must then come up with some suitable description of that meaning. Any such description must then take account of what makes up most of the Universe (the vacuum of space, nuclear explosions, frozen rock) or our lives (one third sleeping, lots of working, socializing, entertainment) which I would suggest leads to a rather mundane list of possibilities. So why is there this ubiquity of meaning in a place and existence that seems to have none? It must be because people like having meaning, or more accurately they like to have determined that there is a meaning whether there is one or not.

So, the happiest people don't ask what it is all for they just do what they like. People search for meaning because they like there to be meaning, even when there isn't any inherent meaning. This leads me to the inescapable conclusion that the meaning of life is to do what you like secure in the knowledge that not only are you enjoying your life but you are also fulfilling your meaning.

One of the more depressing moments of my life happened in discussion with my wife over the holidays in which she said that life was a series of compromises, that there isn't a "good place" but a "best place under the circumstances." You cannot get to a place where it is all fine, people will still annoy you, things will break down, and so on. I think this is absolutely fundamentally true, a great piece of insight, but it's not a happy thing to think. I am certain, because I have had lots of them, that there are wonderful transcendent moments, but these are fleeting and occur only when you are doing what you like.

What's it all about? It's about finding out what you like to do and doing it as much as possible.