The Reflection Of The Meaning Of Life

In contemplating the meaning of life, (or rather, whether life has a meaning or not, and what is that meaning?) a person must answer the timeless metaphysical question about the nature of their own existence which, simply put, is this: Why do I exist and for what purpose? Upon first inspection of this all-critical question appears to lie the built-in assumption that an individual’s life and thus life-itself has a reason for being and that the individual’s purpose can be discovered. As indeed, one can see from relational observations among human beings that people are always searching for satisfaction in their life, a desire to take pleasure in their physical or ideological accomplishments over the course of their lives and in the present.

For when I think about the meaning of my own individual life, I measure my success, future goals, and satisfaction upon remembering how much I have changed over a relatively short period of time, now compared to when I was five years younger than I am now or 17 years old, for instance. At that stage in my life, I had a very good relationship with my parents, still couldn’t imagine being away from home, thought that the girl who I cared about would come to love me, and believed that one of my best friends and I would always be good friends. However, just about every single one of those conditions, except for my relationship with my parents which is still strong, has changed. For example, now when I visit the home that I used in live in for several years as a youth, I always feel out of place, though appreciated at the same time, as if I don’t belong there, as if it’s somehow not my home anymore. Furthermore, the girl, whom I loved in high-school and halfway through college, studies at another state university and is in a serious relationship with someone else. These are things which I never imagined happening five years ago. Not just that, one of my best friends, whom I used to converse with about anything and everything on my mind, no longer

However, this despair of one’s worthlessness in hindsight of the timescale of the universe and human progress can be coped with in a few ways by a simple change in perspective. For example, if one believes that there is life after death, then one can put aside the fear of worthlessness or nonbeing, believing that he or she will exist in another form or non-earthly place eternally. Not just that, as Plato in his Allegory of the Cave wrote about a prisoner’s release from a deep shadowy cave (which was all the reality that the imprisoned man ever knew since he was but a child) into the free world of light above, signifying “the ascent of the mind into the domain of true knowledge [of philosophy]” (Plato), so too can one escape the fear of inevitable human death by losing sense of selfishness, learning to value the lives of family, friends, and his or her immediate society above his or her