Are we alive for a reason?
However, one often overlooked question is: ‘do we actually want to find a reason for why we are alive?’ If we found one, the spectacular elusive nature of life would vanish, and our existence would become a simple, dull experience where we knew exactly where we were going in life before we could even utter a string of words. To find a justified and unquestionable reason for why we exist would render life completely meaningless because so much of the magic of life is the tentative probing of the boundaries of what itmeans to be alive.Whenwe experience new things, newalleyways that we never knewexisted open up and we apprehensively take another turn in our life. But, if there was a clear meaning in life, life would just be one, straight, fogless path that every one of us would follow until our death. There would be no unknown turns, or any untold shocks lying in the murky shadows of another mysterious fork in the road. We would stroll through life guided by the puppet strings of certainty and confidence, knowing that our only path is the right one and is the perfect embodiment of a perfect life. Life would have no magic. Life would be a simple puzzle that everyone solved with the answers already snuggled in their brains. A life with an undeniable reason would cease to be a life. That is what makes our quest for the meaning of life so valuable. It brings ever more questions and evermore uncertainty, making our lives more magical with ever more unknown alleyways and sudden forks in the road. The ‘meaning of life,’ if you have to find one, is to find uncertainty, which will sow the seeds for ever more uncertainty, and your life will be ever more rewarding because of it. Certainty makes life dull and a life not worth living; uncertainty makes life the captivating and alluring thing that we all dream our lives will be. So, when you find a purpose in life, such as looking after your family, seize the knowledge that this reason for being alive is not the only one you will ever find, and the life before you is unpredictable and hazy and could bring a thousand different things. Only once you have acknowledged the fact that you cannot know anything in your life for certain, and the future could hold a thousand different things, will your life really be worth living. That is the only certain thing that life has ever slipped to us: life is going to be a crazy voyage of uncertainty. The purpose of life then, for every one of us, is to follow whatever path our life takes and to bask in the knowledge that your path could swerve at any moment. Are we alive for a reason? In the realm of our thoughts, we are alive for whatever reason we can come up with. This reason may have no relevance to anything factual and will have no grounding in truth. However, this reason will bring the opposite thing that most people think it will – uncertainty. Every piece of knowledge you grasp, the more uncertain you become; the closer you get to the truth about the reason why we are alive: there isn’t one, which is what makes life the meandering, magical voyage that it is.
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