[473] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: Beyond Depression
celine@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (celine@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Oct 23 13:41:12 1988
> If you are looking for a meaning to *your* personal life, then it seems
> that working to improve the condition of your fellow man (and woman) is
> a reasonable goal.
Why does undertaking actions that are generally accepted as good
constitute a meaningful life? What point is there in doing good for
one's fellow man, given my belief that the existence of these others
is as temporary as my own. Should I act out of compassion for its own
sake? Relieve the suffering of others because that act in itself is a
worthy purpose? I have never been able to convince myself of that.
It is not our lot to be happy. We are easily bored. Little of
the happiness we experience in this world is lasting. We suffer
often. The alternative to these possibilities is the emotional
equilibrium that is often characterized as a condition that isn't even
living, it is closer to simply existing.
Happiness is not meaning, though, and if one could find the
meaning of life, though that might temporarily make that person happy,
it would not permanently do so. Happiness is irrelevant. Purpose is
what I need to justify my existence.
> If you are looking for a meaning for *everyone's* life, there's no
> answer.
I believe this to be true, but I can't know it until I prove that it
_must_ be true. In the meantime, I'll keep looking, without hope, but
without the egotism of despair.
