Eric-Wubbo and The Meaning of Life

In the previous sections I wrote –and along the way, discovered- that a good life should include some choices to keep the body in a good shape. Eating, sleeping, exercise, but also having contact with other people, learning/exploring, and studying/modifying your thoughts and regulating your habits and emotions would be necessary for optimal well-being. This, however, is not enough.

After all, if all one does is surviving, one can spend one’s time to the end of his/her days, but this may not result in much progress. While evolution takes care that some development occurs, even in fishes, which are not known for their particular service to arts and sciences, in human beings, who in most Western societies do not have to spend all their time on survival and procreation (the latter due to legal and practical limits), one has to choose what one does after one has done the “day’s job”. Just learning and socializing may be good for the body, but it would seem pointless in the end. Just as more sports would lengthen life but take time and therefore not lengthen the time of life outside sports, “maintenance” should be a part but not the whole of our remaining time.

The meaning of life… Even Monty Python could not answer this question convincingly. Of course philosophy without observation does not give much useful info.

But if we look experimentally, to people who have, by societial standards, both been good for society as well as relatively happy people, we see that they often had a purpose or a hobby or something that they really liked to do. Edison liked to invent, Rembrandt liked to paint, Franklin liked to improve living, Einstein liked to discover the laws of nature. Or, perhaps better put, they loved to do these things.

So after the work is done (or hopefully, on work where you can use a large part of your passion), the people who follow their passion would seem to be most happy in the end.

Still, we must look at the “practical constraints”.

First, while some people are naturally passionate about many things, or already have found their passion, many of us do not have a passion to speak of.
Secondly, being excited about something does not always do us good. Just as we developed a predilection for sweet foods when that sweet food was ripe fruit, this predilection will lead us astray (and to caries) if we overindulge in the artificial sweets that nowadays are rampant throughout our society. So while passion is good, a passion for eating candy or for computer games might not benefit you or others much.
Third, there are other things to do than following your passion. There is administration, washing, cleaning, etc. How to set borders there?

It seems that there is still something left to think about… Perhaps for tomorrow.