Hello. I am curious about a topic that I would like to invite you and everyone you know to write about. It is something that I think about often and have a pretty strong self-concept for. This topic is central to human behavior and thoughts. It isn’t something that can be determined universally through scales and measures, I don’t think it can be, anyway. The significance of it is universal, however. What I am talking about is the purpose of life. What is the purpose of life?
I’m curious about how you define and explain the purpose of your own life. What is your self-concept of the purpose of life? I am issuing an invitation to every blogger and user of social networking media to write up a blurb, an essay or even a volume of how they define the purpose of life, personally. Let’s all do this and then post them on April 15th under the title “The Purpose of Life.” I’ll be doing this. Maybe I’ll be alone, and that’s fine. But maybe more people will do it and that will be cool.
Why April 15th? It’s a day that reminds us of the saying “there are only two things in life that you have to do: pay taxes and die.” So in addition to being an arbitrary day I selected a few weeks out, it is perhaps an appropriate day for us all to consider the purpose of life.
Let’s all take a few minutes for ourselves and ponder what the purpose of life is, and then if so inclined write it down, or at least write some thoughts about whether or not you feel it is important to have a defined purpose of life. We are all influenced from many different angles and perspectives and there will be likely be a lot of overlap of the ways we define life, and that’s great. There will also be a lot of differences, and perhaps that is even better.
I invite you to plan for Monday April 15th. Write down your personal definition of the purpose of life or just some thoughts about the topic. Blog it. Post it on Facebook. Tweet it (that would be a pretty concise definition!). Let’s all share these thoughts with each other. Then once we’ve all posted we can learn something significant about each other and about the world. Or maybe not, maybe it will be an insignificant experience, but I doubt it, I think it would be monumental.
Share this invitation with all of your friends. Invite and encourage everyone to share their concept of the purpose of life. I think it would be really informative. But even if you don’t give this any more thought, check back on April 15th and get to know my life perspective a little better. If that interests you.
Thanks! Hope to read from you all soon.
Paul Brodie 
Glad our path crossed… This is a subject we discuss on at least a weekly basis. We talk about it with each other to affirm and confirm what we believe, and we talk about it with our daughter and our students. The subject is outside the scope of what CutterLight typically delves into, but we may make an exception.
I would love to read what you have to write about it. From what I read on your blog it looks like you two are very, I don’t know if confident or competent is a better word, but one of those, in giving meaning to life. When people step off the beaten path and live without a script (not without planning and order, I mean living without following what everyone else does and what is “normal”; its a good thing) I think it takes a little more drive and motivation, so I’d love to hear how you conceptualize that.
I’m glad you mentioned that this is a different direction than CutterLight usually follows. After I typed the post I was thinking about that, generally, that a lot of blogs tend to follow a pattern or theme. As I was thinking about that I thought that for a lot of folks they blog what they love or live, or both. So taking a moment to declare how you conceptualize the purpose of life seems like it might fit with any blog theme. We all have motivation for blogging, or else we wouldn’t do it. I think in most cases that motivation will probably be connected with the author’s purpose of life.
I hope at least a handful of people will do this. I’d love to read a bunch of different posts from diverse writers and see the similarities and differences and see what I can learn from it.
If you find that it really doesn’t fit with your blog theme I’d be happy to have you guest blog it here.
I think if i started on this topic I’d be gone for hours! 🙂 My husband just looks at me quizzically and shakes his head – but he’s a scientist by nature and never seems troubled by the question.
I’m a social scientist, by personal definition, I suppose by education as well, but I tend to avoid that subject amidst heavy student loan debt and difficulty finding a job relevant to my education. My point is, scientists can still believe in a purpose of life? Now I’m more curious about your husband. What does he believe is the reason we exist? Or is there no reason? Does he have any goals he lives for? These questions really interest me because the answers can vary so greatly from person to person and I think they greatly influence our motivation from day to day.
I’m glad you commented and I’m glad you have a lot to say on the topic! I hope you take those hours and do start the topic. There are 14 days until the 15th so maybe you can just do a little at a time and break up those hours? I’ll be checking in on you on the 15th, I hope to see even a short paragraph or one sentence summing it up if you don’t have the hours required to really tell it out.
Thanks!
I think the answer is that he’s generally pretty content. He’s lucky enough to have the job that he was meant to do. It’s much easier not to be looking for reasons for everything – you could say you get to enjoy the moment a bit more that way?
It’s good that he is content, I just hope he isn’t complacent. I don’t think complacency sits well with scientists.
I can see how it could be more enjoyable not to seek answers for everything. Personally I like to ask why.
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