A while back I joined a web ring promoting Random Acts of Journaling. It provides its members with monthly prompts as ideas to spark journal entries. Here's one of this month's that made me think.
The meaning of life is too big a question for me to answer, but I'll break it down to a question I can answer: What is the meaning of my life? I will tell you: When I fall into a warm bed after a day's hard work, when my belly is filled with the good food Hjordis made for me, when I've done something nice for someone else and heard a good story that's made me laugh—well, that's a good day, a day that's had meaning.
Welcome to the Great Mysterious, Lorna Landvik (p. 116)
I love this.
I'm not a philosopher. I'm not going to go down in history as one of the great thinkers of my time. I don't spend time pondering the great un-ponderables. What's the point? Life's mysteries are mysteries for a reason, right?
But my life. That's something different.
Back in high school, we were all encouraged - nay, forced - to take part in various charities and philanthropies. The theory was that it made you a better person and could give your life meaning. I think philanthropy is very important, don't get me wrong, but life has meaning whether you're feeding starving children in Rwanda or waiting tables at Denny's.
Did Ebenezer Scrooge become a better person simply because he became a philanthropist? NO! He became a better person because he found meaning. He figured out that the way he'd been living had kept him miserable for his entire life. He hadn't really been living, just sort of existing in a meaningless way because he didn't see the value in his own life or in the world.
So, Ebenezer met his three ghosts and found out what he'd been missing. He was able to see how much nicer his life would have been if he'd been something more than a cold hard shell. Go back to my original example - you're feeding starving children in Rwanda. If every day you just blankly hand out bowls of rice to children, they are going to appreciate the food. That's a given. But do they appreciate YOU? Not necessarily. You have to find the meaning in what you do in order for others to do so. That waitress at Denny's might make every one of her customers smile. She might love her job and her existence, and the relief worker might be a miserable SOB with an attitude problem. It's finding the moments in life that have beauty, recognizing their meaning and acknowledging it that gives a whole life meaning.
great thoughts. thank you for making me think.
So true. You stated that very well.
Forced philanthropy could never have the effect than if the students participate by choice, but I suppose it's better than nothing. My school does it, too, in a somewhat cursory fashion.