Today, I am distraught. I am in conflict, a bit of self-imposed turmoil, tired of the angst of just waiting with bated breath for the next natural event, or man-made, or naturally convoluted man-made disaster, dilemma, or damned stupid event to occur. Wanting to just hide in a cave, but afraid that being hidden now, might mean invisible forever! Today I am overwhelmed. One more series of events, not of my creation, but each of which has a cause and effect, creating confusion, chaos, when all I want is celebration and clarity! Today, as a Jewish man, raised in a family of combined traditions, religious, ambiguity, all presented as a recipe from which various cooks have decided how the meal should be prepared, I embrace the day of Atonement, wondering about LIFE itself, and not quite certain, why, if in fact, we live, there must be so much evil, which is, when spelled seems a backhanded slap at the word LIVE. So, I search, and seek and sought out some members of my human race, and share their thoughts, which leave me still wondering, what is LIFE!
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
― Robert F. Kennedy
“Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we're a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.”
― Michael Crichton,
“True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, in writing what deserves to be read, and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it.”
― Pliny the Elder
The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.”-Anonymous
