Most people in the developed world will be living for a smidge over 80 years, equating to about 4,000 weeks (thank Oliver Burkeman for pointing out this fun fact…). As you have likely heard before, this is barely a blip in the time elapsed by the universe. Your vibrations wouldn’t even register on a cosmic Richter scale, if there were such a contraption.
There’s a high change you’ll be forgotten within three, maybe four generations. Unless you do something of biblical proportions that fundamentally shapes the future of mankind, such as Jesus or the Buddha, you’re going to be forgotten. Clearly, life doesn't take you seriously. So why take life so seriously?
We can get quite caught up in concern for what we want from life, what our unique contribution will be. That’s the way our egos like it. It’s common to forget it’s not actually about you. Nor is it about me, it’s not even about your children or your mother. It’s about us, collectively, and the universe: it’s about life.
I quite like this passage in Man’s Search for Meaning (p85) by Viktor Frankl, who made the following observation of those who fared better (mentally, if not physically) in the concentration camps of World War II:
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves, and furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected of us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and right conduct. Life ultimately means taking responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.
You don’t need to look for purpose or meaning, you already have it. You’re here for your 4,000 weeks, some of us much less and a few of us up to 2,000 more (if you live to 120…). It’s not long, so you may just get on with living it.
Alan Watts put like this: “The people who have really learnt how to live, have learnt to treat it all as play” (Play and Survival seminar ~56m). Now admittedly, it’s a big (if not impossible) ask to treat the circumstances of a concentration camp as play, it’s understandably and unquestionably not play. The point is, that surviving one required a letting go of the self, accepting what is and doing whatever ‘right action’ was required next. That’s what people who have learnt how to really live, have learnt how to do.
Life isn’t meant to be about knowing its meaning, or worrying about what your purpose is. It’s about living and doing whatever life asks of you. In doing this, meaning will reveal itself. By all means, if delving deep into philosophy is what life is asking of you and that gives you meaning, just as it has for many great philosophers in the past, then do that. Or perhaps it’s to become a clown and join the circus, in which case, have fun! But whatever life is asking of you: strap in, let go, and allow the roller coaster to thrill you one moment and scare the sh1t out of you the next.
Cover image: Photo by jona0497 on Freeimages.com
Reminds me of Michael Singers' book The Surrender Experiment - just go with it - Life's here to show you - you're not here to show it :)