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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Winston Smith on March 28, 2005, 07:06:57 PM

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Winston Smith on March 28, 2005, 07:06:57 PM

I can't seem to find any right now, and it's killing me. So where do you guys find meaning in your life? How do you feel that you have a purpose? What is it that is larger than yourself that you can give yourself wholly to?

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Chris on March 28, 2005, 07:16:42 PM

Holy crap... how much time do you have?
Ok.
In no particular order:
Wife
Friends
House

Time wounds all heels my friend.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Winston Smith on March 28, 2005, 07:38:15 PM

I've always wanted some cause, something great to give myself wholly to. Is that a symptom of simply not wanting to think for myself? Is it a vestigial need for God? (Whom I have found) Is it a search for the right occupation or woman or what?

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Darkmind on March 28, 2005, 07:57:33 PM

My quest for the holy grail is what keeps me going.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: wasrjoe on March 28, 2005, 08:52:40 PM

Quote

It is, in my opinion, just a basic human need. We have to identify ourselves some way. I went through the same thing for some time. I tried to be a musician... just not motivated enough. Tried to be a good boyfriend/husband... well, I just don't have a way with women, so that hasn't panned out. I looked for a career for awhile and nothing seemed to show itself. I used to be a very active Christian, but now I'm an atheist/agnostic, depending on how my tea sits in my belly. I've always enjoyed reading, but never found a subject I was interested enough to become an expert in.

Then I found the Air Force. I am waiting to be shipped in July. Life is good. I don't care about girls anymore. (Well, I'm still a guy, but I don't fret over them.) Everything else in my life is secondary now, and because of that, so much better. I have a future, I have a plan, I have a purpose, and I have approval. (From those that it matters to me, at least.) I'm doing a good thing, too... something people call unselfish, yet it's something that I want to do.

You just have to find what's right for you, what fulfills you. When you find it, don't ask why, just grab onto it.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Sergeant Bob on March 29, 2005, 02:53:07 AM

When I awoke on Mar 16, after being on a respirator for a week for acute respiratory failure (double pneumonia, liver and kidneys shutting down), I saw what gives my life meaning.

They were gathered around my bed. Wife, family, friends.

When the Reaper comes a callin', all the things you've done and all the neat stuff you owned could be rolled up and hung on the outhouse wall.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: TMM on March 29, 2005, 03:09:56 AM

i'm just a kid, not even out of school, so life in general keeps me going. oh, and owning and buying guns. and CCW-ing. having a wife, no kids. keep the population down. like darkmind, i too want a Barrett... better get one before they're illegal becuase a single-shot sniper rifle that weighs somthing like 20 pounds that uses ammo that costs 2 bucks a pop is a "terrorist weapon"...

~TMM

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Beren on March 29, 2005, 06:26:05 AM

Meaning? Haven't had any since the ex left.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Jason on March 29, 2005, 06:26:35 AM

In the eyes of my son.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: K Frame on March 29, 2005, 09:44:24 AM

I gave up on that concept a long time ago.

I'm just marking time and enjoying it as best I can.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: charby on March 29, 2005, 09:56:17 AM

Well to be honest I'd have to say people I meet everyday and get a smile from this being old and new friends, family, strangers, people I barely know, coworkers and whomever. Just kind of makes me feel that I am here for a reason or some cares that I am here.

Charby

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: mtnbkr on March 29, 2005, 09:58:18 AM

Quote

Wife, family, friends.

Everything else is secondary. The only meaning in my life is to be the best person I can be to those people and nothing else.

Chris

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: RevDisk on March 29, 2005, 10:01:58 AM

My life goal. To save up enough cash to buy a decent amount of land, and then built my own house.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Pebcac on March 29, 2005, 10:27:52 AM

My wife and children. They're why I get up in the morning. Whether I feel happy or not on any given day, God put me here to provide for them, and that I will do as best as I'm able.

I used to look for the great "thing" or "cause" to dedicate my life to, but that doesn't happen to everyone. It's just as important to be one of the guys who works for a living and raises a good family. Without that, there can be no society.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: jamz on March 29, 2005, 10:39:30 AM

Meaning? Purpose?

Don't worry, your purpose will find you, rather than the other way around . Be patient. Sometimes your purpose is not a big thing.

Love, James

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: spacemanspiff on March 29, 2005, 10:40:33 AM

Quote

arent you like, 15 yrs old or something?

teenagers arent supposed to have any meaning in their lives. too busy fighting with puberty and stuff like that.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Typhoon on March 29, 2005, 10:41:59 AM

Life simply is. The meaning comes from your sincere attempts to leave life better than you found it.

Shush, spiff!

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: K Frame on March 29, 2005, 11:50:26 AM

My suggestion?

Find some volunteer work, perhaps with people who are less fortunate than yourself.

I've found that nothing is better for helping re-establish perspective.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: crt360 on March 29, 2005, 12:47:57 PM

I find it in my work. It doesn't mean much to me, but it does to the people I do it for. I don't even like my work a lot of the time, but doing it right is better than doing it wrong. We're just here. We might as well do good things. I don't know that there is a universal cosmic meaning to life, but we can create our own purposes or reasons for getting up and going each day. If you become good at doing X, Y and Z, and others come to rely on your ability to do X, Y and Z well, you are of use to those folks and have a purpose. If you don't like it, do something else. Mix in some self-gratification, like a day a the range or big steak and some tasty brew, and that's pretty much all there is to it. If you become too self-indulgent, and quit becoming useful to others you'll lose the sense of purpose. If you're young, don't worry about it too much, like jamz said, it'll probably find you and it may not be very big.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: yesterdaysyouth on March 29, 2005, 01:04:32 PM

I gave up on that concept a long time ago.

I'm just marking time and enjoying it as best I can.

sounds good ta' me....

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Guest on March 29, 2005, 01:17:27 PM

Only because I can't believe no one else said it:

42.

Cheesy

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Typhoon on March 29, 2005, 01:22:28 PM

Then what is the question?

And, don't say, "multiply six times nine!"

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Guest on March 29, 2005, 01:31:36 PM

As far as what gives it meaning, I don't know. Its life, it doesn't have to have meaning. We only get so long here and what we do or make of it is 99% up to us.

What scares me more than anything is dying without feeling like I've lived enough or done enough. Or worse yet, waiting to die. Someone I know died this week, mostly because he wanted to, and that just blows my mind. I'm not afraid to die, but I don't want to waste the life I have.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Guest on March 29, 2005, 01:42:25 PM

42 is the answer to the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: spacemanspiff on March 29, 2005, 01:43:18 PM

A groan of tedium escapes me, Startling the fearful.
Is this a test? It has to be, Otherwise I can't go on.
Draining patience, drain vitality.
This paranoid, paralyzed vampire act's a little old.
But I'm still right here
Giving blood, keeping faith
And I'm still right here.

If there were no desire to heal
The damaged and broken met along
This tedious path I've chosen here
I certainly would've walked away by now.
Gonna wait it out.

tool - the patient

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: spacemanspiff on March 29, 2005, 01:55:44 PM

Quote

42 is the answer to the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything

well, almost.
"There are three totally different kinds of humans on the Earth, meaning that they perceive the One reality in three different ways, interpreted differently. The first kind of human has a chromosome composition of 42+2. They comprise a unity consciousness that does not see anything outside themselves as being separate from themselves. To them, there is only one energy - one life, one beingness that moves everywhere. Anything happening anywhere is within them, as well. They are like cells in the body. They are all connected to a single consciousness that moves through all of them. These are the aboriginals in Australia. There might be a few African tribes left like this. Then, there is our level, comprising 44+2 chromosomes. We are a disharmonic level of consciousness that is used as a steppingstone from the 42+2 level to the next level, 46+2...These two additional chromosomes change everything." -Drunvalo Melchizedek

The human genome - the complete set of human genes - is composed of twenty three separate pairs of chromosomes. Twenty-two, of which, are numbered in order of size, from the largest (1), to the smallest (22). The remaining pair consists of the sex chromosomes. Therefore, we have 44+2 chromosomes.

According to the teachings of Drunvalo Melchizedek, who is the founder of the flower of life teachings, and the originator of this theory, there are three grids for human consciousness around planet Earth, which correspond directly with the chromosomes in the human body. The first one is forty-two plus two, the second is forty-four plus two (our current evolutionary position), and a third which consists of forty-six plus two chromosomes. The third grid contains "Christ" consciousness.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Ron on March 29, 2005, 02:02:17 PM

Off topic a bit, check this out Barbara http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/index.html

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Guest on March 29, 2005, 03:41:01 PM

Quote

I gave up on that concept a long time ago.

- Mike Irwin

Agree.

Answers to stuff like this come from within each person. Each person is unique and different. Like Mike, I gave on this concept a l-o-n-g time ago. I don't put people, places or things on a pedastle...that way if the pedastle gives way - nothing gets shattered.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Guest on March 29, 2005, 03:49:10 PM

GoRon.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Guest on March 29, 2005, 03:50:18 PM

I think I must be the only person in the world who gets more idealistic as they get older.

I feel like I'm running out of time to do everything I want to do. I don't even want to sleep anymore.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Standing Wolf on March 29, 2005, 05:07:51 PM

I get up early in the morning and paint. When I get stuck, I paint some more. When I really get stuck, I take a break.

I'm not sure I'm a measurably better painter today than I was a year ago, and I'd be very surprised ever to receive much public recognition as an artist, but the effort takes me worlds beyond all my cares and concerns and quibbles and quarrels.

Target shooting is another Zen-esque pursuit, although it's more expensive, less readily accessible in the winter, and hard on my hearing.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Bemidjiblade on March 30, 2005, 02:35:14 AM

At the end of my life, looking back, I think there are only three things that will matter.

Who I've loved.
Who has loved me.
How I have served my God.

Pursuing those three things is what gives meaning to my life.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Pebcac on March 30, 2005, 04:42:30 AM

Quote

And the Earth is the computer that almost derived the question, until the Vogons arrived.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: cfabe on March 30, 2005, 05:09:02 AM

Quote from: RevDisk

My life goal. To save up enough cash to buy a decent amount of land, and then built my own house.

This is what's keeping me going right now.

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Antibubba on March 30, 2005, 07:54:20 AM

Winston,

It is the search for meaning that gives my life it's meaning.

A good book I just read is God's Debris, by Scott Adams (the "Dilbert" guy). I think it is available for free at his website. It'll give you something to chew on.

Keep questing!

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Stickjockey on March 30, 2005, 08:57:36 AM

Typhoon,

The question is, "Why?"

The answer: "Because." Cheesy

Title: Where do you find meaning in your life?
Post by: Fjolnirsson on March 30, 2005, 08:57:53 AM

Barbara,

Quote

I think I must be the only person in the world who gets more idealistic as they get older.

I feel like I'm running out of time to do everything I want to do. I don't even want to sleep anymore.

It isn't just you. I hate the fact that I waste nearly 8 hours a day on sleep.

As for life's meaning?
For me, it is found here:Shiloh

Armed Polite Society

Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Winston Smith on March 28, 2005, 07:06:57 PM