Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The purpose of life

What is the purpose of life?

If you have children, then you do everything you can to give them a good life, and they become your purpose. But if you don't have children, what is your purpose? To work?

I would love to be the kind of person who can do things to help others, but I feel so useless! A useless liberal arts degree, no focus in life, no career, a hundred skills but nothing to tie them together.

I'm not really that bad off. I'm sure lots of people have jobs that don't use their intellect and don't challenge them. At least I get paid well! So what I should do is just resign myself to staying here for 20 years, until I retire, and not think about whether I enjoy it or not.

My short-term purpose is to get fit enough to make all the pregnant women jealous, but I'm not making much progress on that front.

Did it ever occur to you that having children might be a trap? Everyone encourages you to do it, but they (the people who encourage you) don't seem to enjoy it that much! Are they just encouraging others to make the same mistake that they made?

7 comments:

Io said...

Man, if that turned out to be the case, it would ruin this whole infertility blogging thing...
If I knew the purpose of life I would so tell you.

hopeyg said...

Good question T. "What is the purpose of life?" Keep asking. I could give you philosophical answers and theological answers, but I think every person has to ask this question themselves and grapple with the answer in the context of their own life.

I love you.

Love,
hoper

Anonymous said...

actually, funny that you mention that... I always felt sorry for women who seemed to derive their sole purpose from their chilren, their husband, or how others feel about them. I think it makes for a sad existance- I don't know what the meaning of life is but I'm sure it is not in seeking approval from or helping the success of someone else. Children often don't grow to appreciate their mothers for all the thought, time and troubles that went into their raising anyway. I'm sure the meaning of life is a universal thing and bearing children is not universal. Anyway thats what I think. A person might look into religion for the meaning of life since the acnowledgement of a higher power does seem to be a universal concept. I'll shut up now. -chairs

Anonymous said...

Being a parent sure is a full time commitment... you have to be present, in the moment, all the time for this other little human being that is dependent on you.

Guera! said...

Love the post tonight. I wrote about it on my blog.

Deathstar said...

The purpose of life, in my humble opinion, is to become happy. What that looks like is strictly up to you.

Penny said...

Well, I think that many people realize after having kid(s) that they're not the purpose in life either. They're just...an addition to your life. Maybe sometimes then you can feel 'trapped,' you know, if you're looking for purpose in your life and you think it's kids so you have them and then find out kids aren't it. I don't know for sure.