Reflective Essay – The Meaning of Life
When I was fifteen, I started to go to sleep late whereas everybody else at this time had already been asleep for hours. Although it was 1:00 AM, I was always awake in my bed, waiting to fall asleep for at least two hours. Although my body was tired from my long day that started at 8:00 AM in high school and finished at 8:00 PM after an intensive course of taekwondo, I couldn’t get to sleep because my mind kept thinking. I wasn’t thinking about something in particular, but my brain was on and ready to reflect about anything.
Then one winter night, around 1:00 AM, I turned on my TV hoping it would help me to sleep and ended up watching channel “France 3” that was broadcasting a very old episode of “Tintin au Tibet.” I was captivated by this animated movie that had been part of my childhood along with many other things. Everything started from that episode of Tintin. When it was finished, I turned off my TV and began to see my childhood flash before my eyes. A lot of memories, sometimes insignificant, that I had forgotten suddenly came back to my mind. From that night, I couldn’t fall asleep before 5:00 AM the next day, even if I was exhausted and overwrought. I was focused on the past and was nostalgic about this period. Will I feel the same nostalgia about high school sooner as I think too? Will I look always to the past while growing as an adult? Sometimes, looking too much behind you are prevented from advancing. However, it’s good to determine what mistakes were made in the past so as not repeat them later.
Later, always during the night, I would reflect about dozens of questions, like how and why I arrived where I am today and how and where I would go in the future. What would I become? What would I like to become? I had to find the answers to these questions before it was too late because I hadn’t noticed how time passed so fast. I was scared because when I found one possible answer; I immediately found ten new questions. I was overwhelmed by various unanswered questions like the creation of the universe, paranormal activities, extraterrestrial life, etc. Therefore, I started to think about the existence of God who might be able to answer all my questions. Why was I born? What should I do? What would I become after death? However, I knew that I wasn’t the only one not to find answers. For thousands of years, humans have sought answers to these questions.
After thinking about this I have tried to develop some answers to these questions, like for instance, the existence of God. Since the dawn of time, prehistoric men have always been afraid of the darkness of the night and of what they didn’t understand like lightning, which was long interpreted as the wrath of God until we were intelligent enough to understand this physical phenomenon. Today, this belief is still justified because it reassures men when they face questions that science cannot solve all existential issues about life and especially death. Indeed, men are the only living beings who know that they will die, and this is what most frightens them. The fact of imagining a paradise after death helps many people who have a miserable life (like the majority of men) which allows them to believe in a better life after death and gives meaning to their lives. Moreover, it has been the means to establish the rules of living in our society to avoid anarchy. The Church has always maintained a semblance of peace and harmony by scaring men who didn’t follow its rules with the threat of going to Hell after death for eternity. However, a few thousand years after the onset of religions, we can see that it has caused millions of deaths instead of bringing peace and tolerance (as advocated at the base of all religions). Instead, many wars and many immoral acts are still committed to date on our planet. Nowadays, especially in France, we see that people believe less and less in God. I think that the development of our country and education makes people less gullible in this regard. Therefore, also being Cartesian, rational and pragmatic, I am an atheist.
Regarding paranormal activities and having had no experiences, I don’t believe in this either. At the same time, how can we believe in something that we have never seen? Of course, we hear a lot about it, but why believe it when we know the bragging and exaggeration of men. There may be things that are true in these stories, but I remain perplexed. Men always try to find explanations for phenomena that surround them and that they don’t understand. Firstly by science, then by any means if the solution isn’t obvious. Phenomena called supernatural are only those that we cannot explain! The solution may be too complicated for our simple minds, so we invent all sorts of causes that are more and more wacky. But the worst is that in the end, we begin to believe them! Men don’t like the unknown, it scares them. This is why they are willing to believe in their own inventions, such as God, in order to reassure themselves.
Concerning the existence of aliens, this is definitely not paranormal! Why should we be alone in the universe? Why would there be life only on earth and not anywhere else? According to me, there's a good chance there is life elsewhere, but it can be very far from here because the universe is infinitely large! Maybe we will never see aliens. However, to say that they don’t exist is ridiculous. Scientists keep saying that life is not here or there because there is no oxygen or no water. Why wouldn’t a different life form from ours exist; a life form based on different molecules with a different cycle of energy storage that allows living.
The only certainty I have is to be in doubt...there are so many things I don’t understand about the meaning of life and our universe. Why should we worry about something as frivolous as to perpetuate its kind? When I observe the climate change and ecological issues that are so often reported, I don’t really feel concerned. Maybe men are going to their extinction, they will not be able to breathe or eat anymore…but life will take over and the most adapted species will survive, evolve or die. So another era will begin, nothing catastrophic would happen. What about if the earth explodes? The universe is so big! There are so many planets! There are some that regularly die naturally; it doesn’t change the cycle of life and the laws of the universe. In other words, life will continue even without us.
Consequently, why should we continue to get up every morning at 6:00 AM to be hassled all day at work? In so far as it adds nothing to the world except our satisfaction and personal enjoyment? Only that remains. Thus, we must enjoy life without asking too many questions about the purpose of our existence. Life may be valuable, we don’t know, but in doubt we should take care of it. For those who have a hard life or who are depressed, tell yourself that you are not less useful than your neighbor who seems to have a fulfilling life. Having a hard life may be better after all because it is a kind of challenge; it spices up our flat life. We have to enjoy the present moment, then we will have eternity to think about it.
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