Forty-Two

Yes, the title of this post really is 42...which for all Douglas Adams fans means the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. And I sincerely apologize, as I have not yet discovered the question. Anyway...my mind is all over the place right now. So guess who was bored lately, and too tired to work, and sick of spider solitaire? Yep...that would be me. I decided that a better use of my time would be going on Stumbleupon.com (always fun). Interestingly enough, this is the first thing I came to, and I found it worthy of posting about:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1qGZYN/pjammer.livejournal.com/172181.html

Especially the quote at the end of the post really made me think (and if you're too lazy to read the full entry, which is totally worth reading, here's the quote).

Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told--and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.

-Michael Crichton, The Lost World

Hopefully now the title of my post has started to make a bit more sense and actually connect. And in case it hasn't, I'll briefly explain. Lately, I've been thinking (and posting) quite a bit about the meaning of life, why we live, what makes it worthwhile, that sort of thing. This quote goes along with it quite well. As for the Douglas Adams reference...I'm not sure; as I said before, my mind is still all over the place and I'm tired. So now to actually, you know, write something useful or insightful (hopefully) about that quote...

There's definitely something to it. And by "it," I mean the fact that humans fight for beliefs while all normal animals fight for territory and food and whatnot. They have to fight for survival, their whole lives are struggles just to stay alive. Humans have eliminated that need. For us, it's almost a given that we will still be alive a day from now, a month, a year. And because of that, we've shifted our focus away from survival and onto other more, perhaps trivial is the right word, topics.

We're no longer worried about having food or water. Even finding a mate in our lives does not carry the pressing need that it does in the animal kingdom. Now we can worry about just how we look, and what useless technicalities we know or need to know about the composition of spider silk and atmospheric pressure. We'd still be alive even without that knowledge, but suddenly we have made it a requirement to know such things in order to be not only successful in society, but even merely acceptable.

In a way, we have taken all meaning out of our own lives. Life is no longer a question, it is not the struggle that it used to be, and that leaves us with something so precious yet so futile...the concept of which we even created ourselves: time. Now, we have the time to do more than just stare at the stars and tell stories about them--we can find out what they're made of and how far away they are and how quickly they're moving and where...because now we have the time to develop and use the tools required for such a pursuit. So often, people say that time is so precious and that there's not enough of it.

But maybe that's the opposite of the problem. Maybe we just have too much time in our lives. If we didn't have this much time, we would have a meaning, a purpose in life...and that would be to stay alive. Simple, clear-cut, essential, and realistic in most cases. As much as we try, it's not possible to set that sort of purpose for ourselves today without reaching the edge of suicide. And even then not only is the emotion involved different, but so is the method and logic behind that edge of survival. In that case, it is a matter of crawling toward that edge, not running away from the pull that it exerts over you. Life isn't as simple as it used to be...and there's nothing we can really do about it but make the most of it. I'm still asking questions, looking to see what I can find.

As an afterthought, if you happen to find my question, could you please return it to me promptly...my answer is rather lonely all by itself as the title of this post.