The human experience is perplexed, as well as driven by, the search for purpose and meaning. I think I’ve written elsewhere of physician psychiatrist Viktor Frankl and his excellent short book, Man’s Search for Meaning – inspired by his survival of WWII-era concentration camps. I recently listened to a Lex Fridman podcast that also added something significant to my perspective on meaning – shifting the primary question from “What is the Meaning of Life?” to “How do I live a meaningful life?”
Certainly, our definitions of “meaningful” will differ, but I believe the distinction moves the question from one of esoteric, philosophic, perhaps unanswerable existentialism towards something more measurable, visible and understandable.
Scrolling through Mr. Fridman’s podcast list last month, I found episode #227 with Harvard’s Sean Kelly, PhD. Topics include existentialism, nihilism, evil, meaning, classical authors on the topics,…. The entire conversation is worthwhile, but in the last few minutes, Dr. Kelly said some things that will resonant with me forever more.
Referencing the wisdom of a prior teacher, Albert Borgmann, Dr. Kelly says that he may not know the Meaning of Life, but he has some ideas about how to create a meaningful life. He says that one can hope to fill one’s life with moments about which it may be said:
There’s nowhere I’d rather be.
There’s no thing that I’d rather be doing.
There’s no one I’d rather be with, and
This, I will remember well.
My hypothesis: Perhaps there is no single, simple or consensus Meaning of Life. Perhaps the Meaning is to create a life lived meaningfully.
My questions: How do I create the conditions in my life to frequently meet these four criteria of meaningfulness? What do I need to do less? And more? How do my associations, activities, choices and behaviors hold up in light of those criteria? Are there impediments that should be minimized? What can I do to optimize all of these conditions to tend more towards a meaningful life, one in which fulfillment and positive legacy far outweigh errors and regrets?