In Part I of this assignment, you sketched out your initial response to the meaning of life question. Only when you have posted the Part I response to the discussion board, should you proceed to Part II. For this second part of the assignment you should work through the "meaning of life" interactive exercise below. Feel free to complete the exercise as many times as you wish until you are satisfied with your answers. Then, compare your posting for Part I with your selections for this exercise. Finally, write a 1-2 page follow-up composition which you critique your original answer to be consistent with what you now believe after evaluating the lives in the exercise below. What did your original answer get right, get wrong, or miss altogether?

Assignment 1, Part II - What is a Meaningless Life?

            For the first part of this assignment, the prompt asked that we not consult course content or the responses of classmates in offering our take on the meaning of life. This offers a kind of “snapshot” revealing where we stand here at the onset of the course, and then also a forum for becoming acquainted as we read others’ interpretations. Being an open-ended discussion, one would expect considerable diversity among the individual posts.

            I approached the main question “what is the meaning of life?” from a mostly personal perspective, offering a quote from a favorite author who I always felt had given a definitive answer– that life entails being the consciousness of the universe. It is a similar concept to the Buddhist outlook, a philosophy I have followed for most of my adulthood. I stand by that answer, as far as it goes, but also acknowledge that it lacks a lot in specifics.

            After working through the Meaning of Life interactive exercise, it becomes easier to focus on various components of a life that can give it purpose and fulfillment. Of the five categories offered in it (friendship, happiness, morality, children, projects) I find that I did at least touch on a couple of those as I reflected on how meaningful my own life has been. I am a father, and although my son is grown now, and not in my life as much as I wish, his childhood was a tremendously important part of my growth as a human being. It was the first time that someone else’s happiness and well-being had ever taken such precedence over my own. That is not meant to imply that only a parent can experience such selflessness; but simply that it was what caused such an emergence in me. I had been selfish up until then, an important realization.

            As I look at the accomplishments I listed in Part I, they fall mostly into the “projects” category. This makes sense, assessing myself honestly; I’ve always had a more inward looking psyche and been able to find fulfillment on my own. Friends are a nice bonus in life, and I’ve had some dear ones, but they have never been a priority for me. I was perfectly content as a teenager to spend all the hours from after-school to bedtime alone, reading books and practicing guitar. I am similarly oriented to this day. College is a major project for me and I see it as an accomplishment that rivals my decades of study and craft as a musician. Becoming a published writer is the next big project, perhaps the capstone. Or the swan song…

            Morality did not occur to me as a component of meaningfulness. I think this is because I take a mostly secular and humanistic stance there. Some people find a purpose in religion and faith, but I find contentment in living a good life for its own sake. I’ve always been non-violent, tolerant, and respectful of other people’s rights and property. I think that suffices.               

            Measuring the quantity of meaning in other people’s lives is surprisingly difficult for me. (I had several inconsistencies in the interactive exercise). But I’m not necessarily going to see that as a deficit on my part, although I do want to get a little clearer on it. I can see how people with a very rigid moral code, i.e. fundamentalists, conservatives, would have little trouble assigning merit (and more commonly a lack thereof) to various individuals or segments of society. But they see everything in black or white.

            I am liberal and proud to be. I am an intellectual who realizes just how little I know, and how tragically short the human lifespan is for acquiring knowledge. I therefore allow myself some ambiguities, and an open mind that can change with experience. This is meaning, to me.