The Meaning of Life

I heard something today that’s had my brain working overtime, which sometimes is a relatively easy feat. What I heard was a quote by an author, and now I can’t find his name to attribute it to him, but I guess it doesn’t really matter because whether I have his name or not, you should realize by now that I’m just going to enlighten you on my feelings towards the subject.

“The meaning of life is education and entertainment.”

Learn and have fun. Sounds pretty good to me. You? I really like this statement a lot because it really boils down what we as humans are all about. We are constantly learning and constantly teaching and more often than not, our motivations in life are driven by the next fun thing we get to do. Pretty cool. I think this oversimplifies things a bit, but it’s still a rock solid outlook as far as I am concerned.

The one glaring omission I see is that it leaves out love. Everyone loves someone. Their family, their friends, or some even love themselves. I think love is a universal motivator and it’s the true meaning of life. It’s not about the boat ride, it’s about how much stuff gets moved by your wake. (I just made that up. I may start working on some greeting card pitches.) I think that’s true though. Good or bad, the wake you have created in your life has affected others in numerous ways and, from the way I see it now, it’s all about trying to make it a fun boogie-boarding wake and not an “oh my god he’s drowning” wake.

I’ve said it before on here and I’ll say it again today: I’ve put a lot of negative ‘wake’ into this world. Most likely more than my fair share, but I’ve learned and I’m trying to do better. I understand my mistakes and my outright screw-ups now and I have taken great pains to not follow in those same steps again. Sure, sometimes I open my mouth and say whatever’s on the tip of my tongue and that rubs certain people the wrong way, but at least now I know what I’m doing. There’s the education.

Don’t listen to me (unless you want to use my boat analogy, in which case listen to me and make sure I’m credited appropriately.) or some author telling you what the meaning of your life is. Live for you and the things that drive you. Be a better person tomorrow than you were today and I think you’ll have a pretty good handle on it.