Post by bladefd on Mar 26, 2016 20:27:57 GMT
My first thread.. what better way to go than to go big? 
I made a similar thread on ISH in 2010 on the search for meaning in life. I copy/paste some of it, and edit some of it as my views have changed a bit since 2010. Some of these are thoughts I have blogged about on my personal blog.
I have been thinking about this a lot in my spare time, thinking a lot about what it is that we seek in life. I know this has been discussed for thousands of years and I am sure many of you on these very forums have reflected on it in your life... but what is the meaning of life to YOU? (or better way to ask - what is life of humans all about?).. It is a vague question, but look at it at least from the aspect of humanity and somewhat yourself
To me, I don't think I can define life directly, but only indirectly through what is enclosed within our lives.. Life is a very complex thing since it includes everything that makes us conscious and alive, but I think we should focus on the most important things in life since if you don't look at the most important things in your life, you tend to lose focus on everything else.
Here, I will start with this..
Life is but a journey that is based around our pursuit of happiness, attaining and holding some sort of stability (mostly mental), continuing to learn, connecting with people in some ways so you don't feel like you are an outsider along every corner of the path, and ultimately becoming who we individually want to become (also understanding that along every path, there will be obstacles - you have to get through/over/under them). If you acknowledge that and follow your path a certain way that allows your life to be satisfying to YOU along the path, you have fulfilled what you set out to do. I know that as you grow older, things start to become a bit blurry somewhat and regret upon regret start to pile up as you realize you can never get back the time you lost, but there will always be regrets. It is about how you deal with those regrets and get past them that will determine how fulfilled your life remains throughout its entirety. Life is focusing on the short-term but also thinking about the long-term so you don't feel like you are just roaming around aimlessly (although one still might at times).
There are 4 words that I personally cherish and appreciate - hope, inspire, dream, live.
-You must not lose hope in life. If you have hope that you will get through whatever it is you face in life, you can overcome anything. Hope is easy to lose if you don’t have a target in life and are simply drifting from moment to moment so you must keep busy.
-Inspire those around you. I keep thinking of Mr. Keating from 'Dead Poets Society'. He left a life-long lesson for his students to be daring, to be themselves. That scene brought me to tears because he had an impact on each of their lives.
-We all must have dreams in life. There are 2 types of dreamers. First are those who dream at night but do nothing about it. Then there are those who dream during the day and push themselves to make their dreams a reality. The latter are the most dangerous as they are the ones who change the world either for better or worse. Regardless, you must never stop dreaming.
-The only life that should matter is a good ‘just’ life lived for the betterment of society. Such a life may include things like humor, selflessness, respect, honor, curiosity, asking big questions, humility, wonder, willing to discuss & have friendly arguments about philosophy/sports/games/etc, perseverance over obstacles in life
If I think more, I will post later. Anyways, I just felt like I had to post this thread; it is not something that you would randomly bring up in a conversation with friends and just talk about it unless if you are in a small philosophy class setting (set up like a Socratic seminar) with 12-15 students, which does not happen too often. I have never been successful in discussing the 'meaning of life' in real-life extensively with any of my friends; somebody would usually get frustrated and change topic to sports or something else within a few minutes of getting into discussion lol
.. Social media.. forget it, nobody I know discusses deep thoughts on Facebook
What will your verse be? I look forward to seeing what others think on this matter.
I made a similar thread on ISH in 2010 on the search for meaning in life. I copy/paste some of it, and edit some of it as my views have changed a bit since 2010. Some of these are thoughts I have blogged about on my personal blog.
I have been thinking about this a lot in my spare time, thinking a lot about what it is that we seek in life. I know this has been discussed for thousands of years and I am sure many of you on these very forums have reflected on it in your life... but what is the meaning of life to YOU? (or better way to ask - what is life of humans all about?).. It is a vague question, but look at it at least from the aspect of humanity and somewhat yourself
To me, I don't think I can define life directly, but only indirectly through what is enclosed within our lives.. Life is a very complex thing since it includes everything that makes us conscious and alive, but I think we should focus on the most important things in life since if you don't look at the most important things in your life, you tend to lose focus on everything else.
Here, I will start with this..
Life is but a journey that is based around our pursuit of happiness, attaining and holding some sort of stability (mostly mental), continuing to learn, connecting with people in some ways so you don't feel like you are an outsider along every corner of the path, and ultimately becoming who we individually want to become (also understanding that along every path, there will be obstacles - you have to get through/over/under them). If you acknowledge that and follow your path a certain way that allows your life to be satisfying to YOU along the path, you have fulfilled what you set out to do. I know that as you grow older, things start to become a bit blurry somewhat and regret upon regret start to pile up as you realize you can never get back the time you lost, but there will always be regrets. It is about how you deal with those regrets and get past them that will determine how fulfilled your life remains throughout its entirety. Life is focusing on the short-term but also thinking about the long-term so you don't feel like you are just roaming around aimlessly (although one still might at times).
There are 4 words that I personally cherish and appreciate - hope, inspire, dream, live.
-You must not lose hope in life. If you have hope that you will get through whatever it is you face in life, you can overcome anything. Hope is easy to lose if you don’t have a target in life and are simply drifting from moment to moment so you must keep busy.
-Inspire those around you. I keep thinking of Mr. Keating from 'Dead Poets Society'. He left a life-long lesson for his students to be daring, to be themselves. That scene brought me to tears because he had an impact on each of their lives.
-We all must have dreams in life. There are 2 types of dreamers. First are those who dream at night but do nothing about it. Then there are those who dream during the day and push themselves to make their dreams a reality. The latter are the most dangerous as they are the ones who change the world either for better or worse. Regardless, you must never stop dreaming.
-The only life that should matter is a good ‘just’ life lived for the betterment of society. Such a life may include things like humor, selflessness, respect, honor, curiosity, asking big questions, humility, wonder, willing to discuss & have friendly arguments about philosophy/sports/games/etc, perseverance over obstacles in life
If I think more, I will post later. Anyways, I just felt like I had to post this thread; it is not something that you would randomly bring up in a conversation with friends and just talk about it unless if you are in a small philosophy class setting (set up like a Socratic seminar) with 12-15 students, which does not happen too often. I have never been successful in discussing the 'meaning of life' in real-life extensively with any of my friends; somebody would usually get frustrated and change topic to sports or something else within a few minutes of getting into discussion lol
.. Social media.. forget it, nobody I know discusses deep thoughts on Facebook
What will your verse be? I look forward to seeing what others think on this matter.
