The meaning of life

Ahhhhhhh!!! Now this is a subject I like...

What is the meaning of life?

This question is without a doubt either the most brilliant, or the absolutly most ridiculous question a human being has ever asked. And trying to answer it clearly can probably drive a perfectly sane person mad. As I already wrote, I'm not quite sane, so I don't risk too much trying, do I?

What about: life has no meaning. Would it be such a huge disappointement? Yes, well... yeah! But aren't we supposed to give our lives a meaning ourselves? Let's look at it this way: you are born as a blank sheet of paper and life is what fills up this sheet of paper progressively, until it's finaly full someday. You can fill it up with whatever you want, any bullshit will do, it's up to every one of us to choose what should be written on it (and which is what future generations will remember of us). Bad things, good things, humble things, sexy things, meaningfull things, outrageous things... every experience, every action, every second of our life is noted on this sheet of paper (for those who already forgot: this is just a metaphore for life, ok?). When time comes, we have a final look at it... and this could be the moment when we decide if our life had a meaning or not. So life itself is meaningless, until it ends and we can have a look at what we used it up for. Simple enough, isn't it?

I really like this way of considering life. It makes living more attractive. And it encourages me to do as much as possible to never ever have the feeling that I've missed to do or say something important in life. Maybe that's the reason why so many religions link life to death, talk about a "final judgement" of the "soul". Who could be a better judge than the accused himself? Just imagine... you know it's going to be over soon, so you close your eyes and think about all you did... and either you are satisfied with it cause you did so much, saw so much, learned so much... or... you just feel pissed cause you just wasted most of the precious time doing meaningless crap (not to speak about the obligatory 1/3 of life you just can't avoid wasting in bed sleeping).

Now I can already hear some people saying "Yeah, but how are we supposed to do something meaningfull if the circumstances in life don't permit to do so, I had to go to work to feed my family, blablablablabla...". Now that's some cheap excuse, Mister. Life is what you make of it. If you let others do the thinking, let them choose what is best for you, then don't complain afterwards. Ever seen Forrest Gump? That scene when he just goes out of the house and starts running... just because he feels like it? Well, that's life. No one can stop you from opening the door, going out and just start running in the direction you want.

You know, I think we're being systematicaly enslaved by our way of living. There are just too many rules, too much duties, too many responsabilities... even fun is regulated. Everyday life is standardized, tasteless, boring, uninteresting. All we can think off is to make money for a living... that's it. That's the true meaning of life for most people... this and a shot of sparse holidays (fully organized stress) in order not to go nuts or burn out until they're too old to really start living (try bungie-jumping with 75... it should be quite an interesting and final experience).

So do as Brian says: Always look on the bright side of life!