Kevin's Watch

Last night during a brief lull in entertainment on the idiot box i made the decision to walk to the local store.fetching my jacket and shoes i went over in my mind the things i would need to buy and readied myself for the long walk i faced. my wife had gone to a friends for the evening, taking our young child and i was content in the knowledge that when i returned they would be here waiting for me. as i left my eye caught the picture of us together on the mantelpiece and i subconciously renewed my vows to them both.
30 minutes later, as i neared the store i began to experience the strangest sensation.my mouth became very dry and i saw a dull red light seemingly no more than a few inches from my nose.a noise entered my head like a large hammer banging on a tin roof.as the sensation continued i stopped walking and slowly, uncontrollably fell to my knees.locked in this position on the floor i could not help but wonder if my life would soon be flashing before my eyes and death would come as a corollary.
my wife and childs face became clear through the light at this point and i dreamt that i would hold them once again.every sinew in my body felt it and my heart quickened in pace as i kissed the softness of my wifes neck in my minds eye. i saw my young boys smiling face and knew i would see him grow into a fine man. my mind steeled to the thought that death would not take me that day.
when i awoke i knew i was changed.i am no god fearing man and the sensations i experienced i make no effort to explain. i awoke fine and well in my own bed and it was as if i had never left on my late night excursion.yet i cannot escape the fact that this outlandish happening did take place.i had been touched and now knew not only the meaning of my own life but the meaning of all life.it was as if our creator, whomever that may be, had planted this knowledge in my mind and it would be my burden or gift to bear.with this in mind i began to wonder what other people considered to be the meanings of their lives and all life, comprising their hopes, fears and dreams.
i welcome your opinions and beliefs on this subject and shall hold no conceit towards those of you who are wrong and require enlightenment.

Just ask us the easy ones huh?

I won't address the substance of your post, because it's clearly a subjective and personal experience.

My answer though depends very much on what you consider to be the defining criteria of "meaning."

Speaking personally, I can happily say that my life has no meaning that is not self-created. All life strives, if that is what you want from "meaning," and any less tangible meaning is one I choose for myself, my own self-improvement, and no more.

Not being religious, or indeed the follower of any deity, I don't believe in some externally generated meaning, a grand and all encompassing reason for being here.

But my little meaninglessness suits me perfectly, because it's mine.

--A

Yeah, I'm with Avatar on this one. For me, there is no overarching reason. If I could pin it all down in one word, I'd go with "survival." I find that my most heightened states of awareness come from my body being in danger. It just seems that there is a truth to such an acute state. Or maybe I'm all wrong and it's just adrenaline. For now, anyway, my meaning of life is this oatmeal I'm eating. Then, at 12:00, my meaning will be lunch.

Just because it's adrenaline, doesn't mean that it's not true.

--A

Douglas Adams said the meaning of life was 42

I can't wait until the weekend, when I can give this thread the attention it deserves!

tazzyjoe wrote: i welcome your opinions and beliefs on this subject and shall hold no conceit towards those of you who are wrong and require enlightenment.

Since I'm not familiar with you, and you didn't use any winking emoticon in that last sentence of your post, I can't tell if those words of yours I highlighted are in jest or if you're being totally serious.

If you're just teasing -- heh, you got me good. <--- emoticon

If you're being serious, then I seriously find those words presumptuous and offensive.

If I had to serve up a guess, I would say it was in jest, MM.

As far as meaning, I agree with Avatar. We all supply our own meaning to our lives. I too don't ascribe an external reason or intent, if you will, to my life. My life is what I make of it. My meaning is my own.

jeez, as i read your post MM i had this image of keanu reeves standing over me about to kung-fu my ass! sufice to say that i was joking and to be fair the entire content of the thread was being fairly liberal with the truth. i did have an 'experience' not too long ago that put certain aspects of my life into perspective. my wish was really to know the things that motivate you every day to continue. i have a certain respect for people that live life moment to moment and understand that for some a truly specific 'meaning' doesn't exist.
as far as living life with the intention of simply bettering yourself, i sort of understand what you mean but its awfully subjective isnt it? what are you doing right now to better yourself? i geuss you can gather from my last post my life is now totally and unashamedly dedicated to my girl and my baby and nearly everything i do is to make their lives better.
and heres to matrix boy

oatmeal however i could give it all up for.(no eticom because i'm being deadly serious)

TazzyJoe,

I invite you my brother's memorial thread:

kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1743

You may find in his life meaning some answers to your own.

thankyou very much. i'll let you know what i think.

Thanks for setting the record straight, tazzyjoe.

I have yet to experience an epiphany of the kind that would make me radically change the way I live my life. Maybe such a thing will never happen to me, maybe it will happen tomorrow. Who knows?

What motivates me to continue on every day? Well, the basic desire to live rather than to die, I guess. Or maybe it's simply a matter of the path of least resistance: it's easier to just live everyday than it is to deliberately think about not continuing on -- at least under ordinary circumstances.

Beyond that, there are so many ways to think about the "meaning of life" that it gets confusing awfully fast. What Avatar, ur-bane and LF said about creating one's own meaning makes sense to me. However, sometimes I feel that the rest of us are a bunch of slackers when compared to Furls Fire and her family and the powerful sense of purpose that drives their lives. But we are who we are, and we can't take each other's place.

How about I throw this out: one of the meanings of life is to comprehend and/or create beauty, in one way or another. Surely that at least makes life worth experiencing. Beauty could be something concrete like a marvelous book, or a great work of music, or it could be something intangible -- like your total devotion to your family, tazzyjoe (or Furls's total devotion to hers).

But we are who we are, and we can't take each other's place.

no, but we can keep each other company, yes?

Virtually speaking, yes. The KW community is valuable company to me.

and me as well.

Hear Hear. How boring my day would be without all you madmen (and women ) to keep me company.

Plissken, what happened? Weekend busy too?

And yeah MM, I know what you mean...I don't know whether to be awed, terrified or overjoyed by Furls and her merry krewe, but they certainly make me feel like a slacker, in some sense at least. (And I know you don't mean to Furls...you just can't help it. )

I think that everything MM mentioned there is beautiful. And maybe beauty is the sole meaning of life. I like that idea. Especially because, just like improving yourself, it's as subjective as can be.

--Avatar

Terrified???

Sweet mercy, Av...

a quick comment on the "meaning of life". A person's meaning is their own. How one chooses to go about one's life is personal to them. I chose for my life to follow the path I believe was set before me, as did Stephen. And yes, sometimes it is hard, and down right terrifying to live that life. There is pain, there is anquish, there is loss, but there is also such wondrous joy....

Ah anyway...What I do, I do because it is who I am. I could not live any other way.

Av: Yeah, we had an ice storm here. But it's not like thinking about this one longer is going to hurt it.

Very true. Ice storm huh? Sounds...cold.

Yeah Furls, terrified.

Speaking for myself at least, it's an intimidating thing for a non-believer to see somebody so committed to a philosophy, somebody who binds both thoughts, (difficult enough) and even more importantly their very life and actions, to those principles with a committment that's so...focused.

It's a rare thing that I meet people who actually embody the principles which they claim to believe in, because believing is so much easier than doing, and sustaining that "doing" is harder still.

It makes us wonder if we're inadequate, and not in a religious sense either. Simply in a human sense.

The choice part of it, and the personal nature of it, well, those are obvious to me, and I agree whole-heartedly. It's the "set down for me" part that I have a problem with.

Stay safe ya hear? There are never enough people of any creed like you.

--A