Perhaps the meaning of life is as simple...and as profound...as the rules to the old PAC-Man video game. Do you remember those rules? If not, here they are: Eat. Avoid bad people. Move to the next level.
Or, maybe the meaning of life is...chocolate.
Chances are neither of the above are satisfying answers to the question, "What is the meaning of life?"
The Jewish Talmud teaches that:
Just before a baby is born,
An angel shows it everything there is to know and learn on earth.
Then, at the moment of birth,
The angel touches the baby's upper lip, and the child forgets everything.
And so, we spend the rest of our lives
Remembering what the angel showed us.
That's sweet. Who knows, maybe that is the meaning of life.
Or, the meaning of life might be very much like the movie by the Monty Python comedy group described it: A series of happenings and events, some of which have meaning; some of which don't. Some good times; some bad times. (And through it all, a good sense of humor will go a long way toward making life tolerable.)
BTW. If you have not seen this great classic movie, you must stop reading this blog-post immediately, and watch the movie. Go ahead, I will be here when you get back.
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.........OK, now that we're all up to speed, we can go on.
After you are born...and you begin the quest to remember all the angel showed you:
You will have stuff to do.
Tasks will present themselves. Some easy. Some not so easy. Some tasks will be obvious ways forward in your development and growth. Others, not so much. Still others, not so obvious.
You will have to work at staying alive.
Be careful out there, its a dangerous world.
Eat well. Get enough exercise. Be kind to others. Find your limits.
There will be challenges.
There will be joy. There will be pain and suffering.
Try hard to make the challenges turn into opportunities.
You will have to decide.
And when you do, remember that decisions and choices have consequences.
Some of those consequences can make or break you.
You will play, observe, learn, and gain skills.
You will discover how things work. And you will begin to understand what makes the world go 'round.
Along life's way you will attach yourself to deities, gods, faith, a philosophy of life.
These may be projections of your own experiences, or they may be from beyond human experience with a reality all their own.
You will have friends. And mentors. And guides.
You will have enemies.
You may experience sex. You may find a loving mate, partner, spouse.
You will gain wisdom. You may amass some amount of wealth. Or, you may be poor.
You will fail. You will lose. You will cry.
You will love. You will heal. You will succeed.
You will die.
And you will be remembered. Remembered by the way your brought meaning to life.
Who knows, maybe in there somewhere is THE meaning of life.
