It occurred to me one day, I was looking for something. I had a question. A simple little question really. What is the meaning of everything?
I wasn’t religious as a kid and maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if I was. But as a young person, I had never given serious consideration to any of the questions I suddenly had as an adult. What is the meaning of life? Am I doing the right thing? What am I supposed to be doing?
The journey to find the answers to life’s big questions, continues to lead me down one spectacular road after another. Life, I found, is not only meaningful, it’s indescribably rich with beauty and splendid things. Though it’s not perfect, when it’s good, it’s really, really good.
And as far as the meaning of life goes, I think I found it. I mean, I’m pretty sure I did.
The meaning of life is to see it improve. Life is good and it can be better. That’s it. It’s that simple. And it’s not just true of your life and the lives of everybody else, it’s true about life in general.
That, I believe, is what we’re supposed to be doing. Making life better. Here and now for ourselves, and for the future and whatever form life takes.
This is something we can do. We can make life better. It’s actually not even that difficult. Life is full of good and bad. Everybody experiences pleasure and pain; hope and fear; joy and sadness. And we all agree life is better when the good outweighs the bad. As much and as often as possible, be kind and considerate to as many people as you can. Done.
Of course, kindness isn’t a new message. Turns out it’s a lot of the things your mom may have told you when you were a kid. Be nice. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything. For most of us, these messages of general kindness and consideration are among the first instructions we receive as children.
And most of us are good kids. We listen to our moms. We are kind. Just not always to everybody. We’re nice to our friends and family, and occasionally kind to strangers. But we’re far less friendly with rivals and outsiders.
It’s easy to be nice to people who treat you kindly. It’s much harder with others, especially people who are unkind. Sometimes, you can’t bring yourself to do it. And sometimes you shouldn’t. But don’t let that convince you that we aren’t here to help each other. We are. And (usually) you can do it!
So that’s the meaning of life. To make life better. For yourself and all of us. Be as kind as you can to as many people as you can, whenever you can. And don’t forget what your mom told you. Don’t be mean. Remember to say thank you and excuse me. Share your toys with other kids. And be nice.