The meaning of life. Are you kidding?

 I had a conversation with a friend about jobs and meaning and, without one, you can’t have the other. And so, I wondered, is this true? And, of course, I generalized that even further to wonder if, without purpose, can life have meaning? I posed a version of this question to my wife and she replied, I’m not talking about it. 

 But my friend was so passionate, it was difficult to ignore. He’s in the oil industry and he’s seen many of his friends lose their jobs. My daughter was in the oil industry. She made a lot of money for a young woman her age, less that her male counterparts, but still a lot. 

 

My friend has three houses, each worth more than one of mine, so I figured, unless the friends he was talking about were young like my daughter, they would have accumulated a considerable sum of money and capital. Certainly, more than I, as a teacher, had done.

 

He and I are the same age. I’m retired. I haven’t lost my meaning. Does he fear doing the same should he retire as well? 

 

I hated my job when I retired. (I’m sure there are a few of us.) So, the relief of quitting was meaning enough. Then, I began digitalizing the diaries my wife and I had written on our attempted trip around the world back in 1987/88. It was not entirely meaningful. I wasn’t fulfilling a function of any kind except to document our travels for my own benefit and maybe that of my wife’s and my children’s. 

 

My wife retired. I did some contract work with the Alberta Distance Learning Centre until that ended early last year. And since then? We walk. We’ve travelled some. Been to Malaysia, Greece, and Scotland. This year, we’ll do some more walking, more travel and visit our daughter and her husband in the U.K. as well as our son and daughter and her significant other in Victoria. And I’ll do some skiing on the hill 7 minutes up the hill from our house.

 

Is that enough? Not according to my friend. Or maybe he was just referring to himself and those younger. He’s a very kind guy and has employed my son as well as other young men in need of employment over the last few years. Nevertheless, he had me thinking. Do we need employment or a function in the service of others to find meaning? What happens, in the future, when services and manufacturing reach a point where most of its automated? Will everyone just lose meaning? 

 

Of course, I’m not going to answer that question. As my wife likes to say, we all need to find our own meaning in life. And maybe it’s an ongoing project. Constantly finding meaning. Getting up in the morning and deciding what to do. Kind of a first world problem. Maybe if we were all scavenging for our food every day, searching for shelter, helping others when we see a need, that question wouldn’t matter.

 

Another friend posted a quote by Margaret Mead who said that the first sign of civilization she’d witnessed was a femur that had been broken and healed. Someone had cared for this individual while he rehabilitated. She said that none of our animal friends would have known to do the same. 

 

And, perhaps, that says it all. We just drift from day to day, living our lives, appreciating the beauty, drama and comedy of it and then, in a time of need, respond.  

Fairmont Hot Spring Ski Hill