The Nature of Life

Existentialism is the belief that our lives have no inherent meaning or purpose, but rather it is the purpose we create for our lives that gives them a sense of meaning. This meaning is only present in our consciousness however, the universe, or god, doesn't care what you're doing.

Nihilistic means rejecting all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless.

Similar but different views of our lives here on earth from a purpose/meaning point of view...  the former believes that we give ourselves purpose and the latter believes that we have no purpose at all...

Don McLean, the 74-year-old singer best known for his 1971 hit "American Pie," says he is not impressed with the music of today.

The singer-songwriter believes times have certainly changed since his early days in the music industry, and he's claiming there is no longer music of substance when he turns on the radio.

"The music doesn't mean anything. The music reflects the spiritual nature of the society. We have a kind of a nihilistic society now," McLean told the host. "No one believes in anything, no one likes anything, no one has any respect for anything much. The music shows that."

When I was in college pursuing an English degree, I got heavily involved with Existentialism...  and, I still believe that the world does not care about anything but its own survival and continued existence.  If we are going to find purpose and meaning in life, we are not going to find it in the lyrics of the music like we did in the 60s and 70s but we are going to find it if we give ourselves purpose and meaning.

We can no longer identify with what we had or what we want or what we would like to have, we must look at TODAY and realize that our purpose and meaning is what we do TODAY...   how we treat ourselves, how we treat others, what we believe or don't believe...  all revolves around TODAY.

And, another aspect of this TODAY concept is that we cannot expect or demand that others make us happy... or provide us with joy...  that can only be done by ourselves and for ourselves.  We must learn, one way or another, that it is up to us and only us, to provide ourselves with what we need.

Life is individual...  we are born individually (even twins) and we die individually (no one dies for us) so we must live the same way.  We can share our lives but we cannot expect that the sharing will make us happy...  the purpose and meaning that we give to live and to ourselves is what makes us happy...

Sometimes, it is a difficult lesson to learn...