Meaning of Life

I've often heard and read about people despairing at what they experience as the meaninglessness of life. I consider myself lucky never to have gazed into that abyss, but I also consider this to be based on a completely misguided idea of how we might know that purpose.

The fundamental problem in my view is the self-centeredness of the idea that I as a fallible individual am the judge of the meaning of my life. By myself, I just don't have the capacity to make this call, see principle 2. True knowledge is interpersonal. Neither am I entitled to be the judge of this, because as a human I'm always deeply embedded in a group of people that I influence in one way or another, see principle 4. Humans cannot exist in isolation. What I mean to others I'll never fully grasp, while this is in my view an essential part of the meaning of my life.

Without religion and with the Western focus on individuality, we have a bit of a problem to find purpose in our life. Our scientific discoveries seem to lead us further away from finding answers instead of bringing us closer. We know our individual lives are infinitesimal compared to the vastness of the cosmos. However, I think this has no bearing whatsoever on our life's meaning. Realizing how small you and your problems are is very useful to put your problems in perspective, but it should not be used to belittle your life's worth. Almost all of your problems won't kill you. The sun will rise tomorrow, take comfort in trusting that they will be solved and the new day will bring new opportunities.

So, does this mean the whole question is misguided? If the question really is: 'How do I JUDGE the meaing of MY life?' then yes it is. If it is: 'How do WE as a community VALUE a person's contribution?' then no. Working to be your best self counts for something, for both you and your community. And I think this is the real question that we should try to answer: 'How do I work on being my best self?'. I think we should look for our road and follow it, instead of skipping that and trying to figure out what the goal might be right away. Your road will lead you there.