Monday, March 17, 2008

I exist, therefore I am...and now you're telling me I have to have a purpose too?

A certain curly-headed lurker called me up last night to ask me questions about the concept of "purpose" in one's life. We had quite an extensive discussion about this ideology, and before I realized it was happening, I had discovered that in some wierd transmutation of the universe, I truly don't believe that each of us has a singular purpose so to speak to fulfill during our time here on earth!

Now before passing sentence on me and banishing me from ever even speaking the title of Mr. Warren's book aloud again, please bear with me while I try to explain my shocking perspective.

While it is important to understand that I am without question a person who is quite driven in life, I believe it is equally important to understand that I am not necessarily driven in quite the same way that many profess themselves to be driven, i.e. by purpose. A hard worker by upbringing and an over-achiever by nature (or so my son says), I am driven by myself and my response to my personal work ethic along with a desire to never be the proverbial "dumbass" in any room to do what I must to excel in every endeavor I attempt.

Tonight, while hanging quietly in my room reading blogs and trying to come up with a topic for this post, my beautiful, intelligent, and remarkably self-contained [especially for a 24 year-old] Goddaughter [the afore-mentioned curly-haired lurker] called to ask me my opinions on my personal purpose in life. Remembering what 24 was like, I was actually somewhat hesitant to share my views on purpose with her for fear that it would derail her from the path that 24 year olds inevitably find themselves traveling. After a short amount of introspections, I decided to do what I always do when it comes to this amazing individual and give her the unvarnished truth as I see/live it.

I explained to her that in my opinion, "Purpose" as a concept is quite overrated. Let me try to explain what I mean by this statement...

  1. I believe that too many people spend too much time and exert way too much energy "looking for their purpose in life". In my opinion, purpose is something that is specific to wherever an individual is at any given moment in life and as such is a different thing for the same individual depending on the stage of life they may be in at any given time. That means that like most things in life, a person's purpose probably changes as a consequence of all of the other changes that are constantly happening in one's life. This being the case, it would seem to me that this idea of one's "Purpose" being the singular defining reason for why they were sent to this earth in the first place is way too big to accommodate any phenomenon with such a huge propensity for change.
  2. If one does decide to take the position that we each have a specific singular purpose we are supposed to fulfill while here, a look down the road and into a future where that purpose has or has not been fulfilled results in a couple of questions that I believe it is important to answer. In scenario I, one fulfills his/her purpose by the ripe old age of 30...what's next? If purpose is a singular, overriding, and defining reason for why we are here, what is left for the individual who manages to find and fulfill his/her purpose quickly? Do they get a new purpose? Do we all get more than one? If we each have a singular purpose for which we were put here, what is this individual supposed to do with the rest of his/her life? What happens now? In scenario II, let's assume the individual never discovers nor fulfills his/her purpose...what happens here? Does this mean this person's life has been a waste and he/she is a failure at life? Should he/she continue to try to "find" a purpose or should he/she just give up and accept their perceived failure? If he/she does find "a new purpose" does that mean that they were mistaken about what they thought was their purpose before, or is this so-called "new purpose" a cop out? The fact that in either of these scenarios the individual is left to figure out what to do next seems to belie the idea of a singular purpose in any of our lives.
  3. Another issue I have with the concept of a singular purpose is that for far too many people, purpose seems to relate to their occupation or vocation when in my view of the world if one were to be given a singular purpose to fulfill, I would think it would be connected to things that bring more value to the average individual's life than what we do to cover the cost of living. Though I fully understand that some of us actually do work at jobs that we truly love and that we find fulfilling, it is my belief that the mass majority of us work at jobs that are just that jobs...and have very little to do with any greater purpose our lives may have.

I could continue building this list of reasons why I don't personally subscribe to the idea of a singular purpose in my own life, but I won't because who has time for all of that? I will add this point from my own personal experience here on earth that just might shed a little more light on my views. If I were asked to define my own singular purpose in life if indeed I have one, I would have to say that it would be to have been my son's mother. However, this is something I would answer with the wisdom of the perspective of hindsight working for me. When I discovered that I was pregnant almost 20 years ago, I can assure you that I felt absolutely no sense of this pregnancy possibly being the first step to me fulfilling any purpose I might have been given in this life. Even as I raised this fantastic little boy to manhood, I still felt no sense of this being my purpose though I admit to having enjoyed doing this one thing more than anything else I've done. Additionally, now that my son is a man and well on his way to being on his own in the world, if being his mother was the singular purpose assigned to me by the cosmos or whatever entity is responsible for assigning purpose, does that mean I'm done now? Of course it doesn't, and for this reason more than anything else maybe, I don't buy into the idea of a singular purpose in life.

Not subscribing to the idea of a singular purpose has made my life easier in many ways in my opinion. I have spent virtually no time in the past 43 years comparing myself to others as it relates to where I happen to be at any point in my life. I don't find myself looking at those who have attained educational goals that I still aspire to achieve and thinking that they have done a better job of deciphering and attaining their purpose in this world. I don't look at married couples and think they are further along the path to fulfilling their purpose than I am. I don't find myself falling into depressions with the advent of my birthday each year because I am not where I thought I'd be by "x" date or point in time; to the contrary, I anticipate each birthday with the same excitement I had for my birthday as a child. As a matter of fact, though I spend a significant amount of time planning for my future, I DO NOT have a 5, 10, 15... or any other number of years plan; don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with making these kinds of plans...I simply don't do them. I definitely make plans for myself and my future such as my current "plan" to become a published author (I'm already a writer ;) within the calendar year running from February 1, 2008 to January 31, 2009. Notice I am writing that very specific and measureable goal here in the public realm for each of you to read and if you want attempt to hold me accountable to achieving. As I write it, I fully expect to fulfill this goal; however, if I don't, such is life...I'll change the "complete by date" and try again with absolutely no shame in my game regardless of what any of you might have to say about it! LOL!

If I believe in the concept of a singular purpose at all, I'd have to say it is with a caveat. I believe that if indeed we have a singular purpose in life, it must minimally be similar to the way other positive characteristics are assigned to us...things like beauty, intelligence, personality, etc. I think if indeed we each have a purpose in life, that purpose whatever it may be is not assigned to each of us to the same degree. What I mean by this is that much like physical beauty is possessed by each of us to some degree, some possess more and some possess less, purpose in my opinion probably operates much the same way. This explains to my satisfaction those people I meet on rare occasions who seem to be doing exactly what fulfills them and utilizes the gifts they possess to the utmost potential. These individuals are to purpose what Halle Berry and Dorothy Dandridge (according to many) was to the idea of black, feminine beauty. This also reinforces for me why for the majority of us for whom purpose is not so obviously an identifiable gift, spending inordinate amounts of time and energy trying to discern it might not be a sensible idea.

The take-away folks is that purpose should be a good thing in one's life. It should focus us on the creation of goals and objectives that if achieved should hopefully enrich our lives. At the same time, as it focuses us, our purpose should be flexible and capable of being adjusted, modified, or even scrapped without leaving us to feel we have failed or even worse, that we are failures. Purpose should inspire us to do great things, not convict us about the things we are doing. In too many cases, I find that those "purpose driven individuals" that I personally know are much too hard on themselves. They are often found stressing over how much of their lives have passed with them not yet having identified their purpose...or worse, they are distraught over the thought that they may never be able to fulfill the purpose they believe they have identified. So much energy focused on something that should be a positive influence in our lives and yet seems so often to be such a negative force in our lives can't be a good thing. So as a happily purposeless woman, I'd like to offer the following suggestions...

RELAX and let yourself do whatever it is that you do!

If indeed we each do have a specific singular purpose to fulfill, it will surely find us so don't stress over it. If we each have multiple purposes to fulfill, I am sure those will find us too. Even if the final verdict is that there is no such thing as purpose, that's okay too because if each of us are doing whatever it is that we do, I assure you that we will be doing what it is we are supposed to be doing and in my opinion, none of us can expect any more from ourselves than that!

So let me hear from you now...Do you believe you have a singular purpose? Have you identified it yet? Is it something you expect to be able to identify? Have you fulfilled it yet? What if you never find it...what then?

21 comments:

Serenity3-0 said...

Sharon, I respectfully disagree with your sentiments on purpose. I actually wrote about my purpose yesterday, well actually one of the steps in my path to my purpose. I do not believe my purpose is one single solitary task, but I do think there is a legacy that I will leave with one of the items on my "I was created to fulfill this" list. I spoke at length with an older lady yesterday who I would consider very wise. We agreed that all of our experiences in life are not to be wasted and they all lead us in the direction of our purpose. I do not believe everyone will identify their purpose nor fulfill it. I don't operate in a manner where I feel upset about not doing X, Y and Z in certain time frames. I start out with an idea and I expect for things to happen and most often they do. There is a lot to be said for expectations. While my purpose has nothing to do with my career choice or employment, I simply feel they are avenues that allow me to move into my purpose. I sometimes look at my son and I'm amazed that I was blessed to be given him to take care of and nurture. Just listening to his thoughts and watching his mannerisms lets me know that he is destined for great things and I often wonder what his purpose is. At any rate, let's just say I disagree with your take on purpose, but that's the beauty of this blog thing. We can agree to disagree respectfully.

angela said...

hey sharon, definately agree with you. eventhough serenity isn't very clear about why she disagrees with you, it seems that, to an extent, serenity is saying in part the same thing that you're saying. (**"I do not believe my purpose is one single solitary task, but I do think there is a legacy that I will leave"**) serenity says.

we are all here for various reason's, some say purpose/purposes, and we fulfill them, or not in so many different ways and sometimes concurrently. maybe it's just semantics - i say po-TAY-toe, you say po-TAH-toe. i don't know. however i do know that most things happen for a reason, whether we make them happen or it's fait, spirit, luck, serendipity. we can turn it into our purpose, or not.

thanks sharon, i really liked this post!

Xave said...

[thinking out loud]

Oh look at this, another book by Sharon. :-) I'll definitely have to read this one cause I just LOVE her writing. Only thing I thing I love more than Sharon's writing is Sharon herself.

Peace and Love,

Alizé (LoversA.blogspot.com)

LadyLee said...

Alright Oldgirl... You know I had to read this a couple of times, and go home and think about it. This was definitely one of your lonnnnng microphone moments.

I myself do believe in purpose and that everyone is here for a purpose(s). If not, am I just existing, day to day, for no reason at all? Nope. That don't sound right. I think that because of such an attitude, this is why we have people off doing all kinds of crazy crimes, etc... They are products of no focus and misdirected talent. No deep "knowing" in their hearts of "I am here for a reason. I have purpose."

I do not believe we have one single solitary purpose, but we have multiple purposes. Our purpose grows out of what makes us happy, out of what needs we see around us that need to be fulfilled, out of our goals, dreams, tragedies, etc.

I think the problem comes up when we look at others and try to compare ourselves to others. So I am looking at someone who is walking in their "purpose" and I'm judging myself by it. THAT is the problem, and it causes inner turmoil.

I have my own portion, my own lane. It is my lane. You have yours, I have mine. We shouldn't compare ourselves to one another. Yet we do, and this is egged on by society.

So overall, if I'm getting this right, you are NOT saying that you don't believe in purpose, but you ARE saying you don't believe in people having a single solitary purpose. Some folks may have a single purpose, I don't know that, but as for myself, I don't believe that for myself.

Look at yourself for example, with this Bloggers Delight group you are SO excited about, and all the very good poetry that you are creating as a result of that powerful influence. Correct me if you wish, but uh, you weren't really thinking about this some 3-6 months ago, were you? This is something that has recently bloomed in your life. Does this have anything to do with one of your purposes? Will something be born out of it? Hmm... or do you consider it some random anomaly? So is there some meaning to it or not? And no telling what will grow out of that. Only you can judge that. But I myself view it curiously, and I don't see it as some mere fluke. I feel it would be some insult to God above, who thought about us before we were even a twinkle in our own parents eyes, if we consider whatever happens with us as to be some randomness, and NOT having anything to do with the path He has laid out that leads to... something. That some "thing" being purpose, perhaps?

You decribe yourself as a "Happily Purposeless woman."

*crickets*

My dear, you are NOT a mere arrow shot straight up into the air, with no target in sight. Nope. I refuse to believe that. No, no, no. I guess it's okay if you believe that about yourself. But in my eyes, that is impossible. Impossible.

Hmmmm...

Right now, Serenity is going through some things that have to do with one of her purposes. There was a specific deep-rooted desire she had regarding mentoring young girls in her hometown, and many interesting things are happening with her right now that are preparing her and shoring her up to be knowledgable and ready to accomplish that goal. Her purpose, in that respect is tied up in that, and for me, it is a thing of inspiration.

I heard something that blew my mind a while ago: God is yearning and very eagerly desiring to express a unique facet of His personality in each and every one of us.

I myself think that very statement has to do with our purposes and assignments in life. I really do. That blew me away. Made me feel, I don't know... like I was special or unique. Like I have my portion, my lane, my own piece of the pie that is specific to ME. And it can only be accomplished... because I EXIST.

Do we agree or disagree? I will let you decide that. Either which way, you know what I say.

Let't not go straight... LET'S GO FORWARD!

Really though.

Okay Oldgirl. I can go on and on... you know how longwinded me and you can be! Take your Microphone back. (It don't smoke as bad when I hold it... I guess because it is yours, lol).

I will not blog in the comment section, lol!

Very thought-provoking post/book, lol. You stirred me up with this one. Take care, and let's talk soon:)

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. Yes I do believe I have a singular purpose. However, in living that purpose, I will by default have "mini" purposes, if that makes sense. Now, remember who this is coming from LOL. My purpose is to worship God in the best way possible. In doing that (which is a "purpose in progress" for me)I will fulfill other purposes. I think our "mini" purposes can and do change according to what is going on in your life. So for me, right now, in route to trying to fulfill my larger life's purpose, my "mini" purposes are to be a good mother to my sons, a good wife to my husband, a good neighbor to my neighbors, etc. 10 years ago, it was to be a an honest and upright person (still is btw), do my best in grad school...whatever my life was at that time. Dag Sharon, you sure make a sister have to think before I have my lunch! I need a snack after reading your post!!!

Lance said...

i'm wif the X-Man, "another book by Sharon"...

looky here y'all...life really don't give a shit, what you do...but before they lower you in that grave or put you in that vase...just do you...be selfish, be vigilant...no purpose to it, just do the damn thing. if you can get it done. fine. if not, at least you didn't try. which is a helluva lot better than not trying at all.

what other "purposes" in life that you have will change, just like the weather, especially as you get older.

carpe diem!!!! ;-P

Lance said...

i meant "DID" try in the last comment...my bad

CapCity said...

TELL HER LadyLEE!

"You decribe yourself as a "Happily Purposeless woman."

*crickets*"

I've met u, Sharon & this "book" was simply your musing 'aloud' - which is fine to me! We all need to mull over & digest the semantics that the media is tossing AT us! But for REAL - I've MET/am related to some "happily purposeless ni%%az" - let me TELL U! THEY will make yo' azz RUN & FIND/CHOOSE the nearest PURPOSE u CAN! I call them my personal "motivational" speakers/coaches! As my Daddy urged us & continues to motivate me: "dont' U DARE go thru this life w/o a purpose!"

Hugz 2 ya, Sis! We'll be here as u flow thru various life purposes;-). thanx for that video that i discovered on YouTube, too!

Babz Rawls Ivy said...

Sister Twin,

I am not in agreement with you. I think everything on the planet and beyond has a purpose. Do we need 10000 zillion billioon contrillion stars to light up the night? When perhaps a couple trillion will do...YES indeed. We are all here purposefully according to God's plan. Some of us have grander purposes that are obvious to the onlooker and others have a purpose that is hidden away from plain sight but serves the world in ways that cannot yet be acknowledged. Love is boundless and becasue of that we each have a purpose to carry that spirit far and wide. Is there one purpose for each yes indeed. To love and love, to love to love, and love.

Lance said...

hmmm...@ lovebabz "to love and love, to love to love, and love"...

what if it's "to hate and hate, to hate to hate, and hate"...is that purpose driven or not.

what makes love supreme over hate?

yes, my peoples...
i'm startin' sum shit.

CapCity said...

well, Lance - some love to hate and that drives them;-) - love is still supreme because only if u LOVE hating can u hate FIERCELY! LOL! Brang on da shyt talkin'!! whoops - sharon we gettin' all rowdy in your spot! LOL!

Lance said...

i feel ya cap, but y'all don't get me wrong...

i understand about "divine purpose" and all that...what's wrong with doing the damn thing and moving on? whether it's "purpose" driven or not? it's like sayin' "this is my destiny!!!!"

you destiny could be working breakfast at starbucks...lol

Babz Rawls Ivy said...

Lance yes indeed your purpose could be working breakfast at Starbucks. That is not a bad destiny. That person that day could possibly change the attitude of another person who comes in that may need to have someone smile at them, or be nice to them.

There is only Love and the opposite of love is fear. Not hate. Hate is fear. If someone is hating it is because they are afraid. They are afraid of what they don't know. But hating requires some sort of concern for a thing/being/person/issue. Fear cares nothing about anything or anybody. It is designed to keep you small and trapped and insecure. Love indeed conquers all. To suspend judgement based on our own experiences of the world and the folks in it color us. So often we are in disbelief of a love that heals, that protects that strengthens that we fearly will ourselves into distrust and mistrust and abuse of all manner of things. We each have a purpose. It is the one true purpose...to love and to love and to love. Some of us love through solid parenting, or writing, or singing, or dancing, or serving coffee at the breakfast shift at starbucks.

This is a subject I can talk about all day and night. Because I know love remains and sustains.

Xave said...

Dear Sharon,

I read your essay with great interest and I accept your challenge to debate. Let me start with what I’ve identified as your thesis statement:

"Purpose" as a concept is quite overrated.

Since you have already argued the affirmative, than my purpose here is obvious and it is that purpose that drives me to join the debate by arguing the negative. I will endeavor to convince you and all readers that not only is Purpose NOT overrated, but a life can only be said to be well-lived, if it was ultimately, purpose-driven.

I’ll start with a brief opening argument:

Purpose is everything and everything has purpose. Knowledge of purpose has no more affect on the existence of purpose than the total absence of reason, or debate. Purpose simply is. Properly understood, a rock has purpose. A river, a mountain, the wind, and anything else we can name all have purpose. Living things certainly have purpose. Even flies have purpose. Just ask any crime scene investigator. What makes humans being unique is our ability to intelligently discuss complex ideas like Fate, Destiny, and Purpose. Thus it behooves us not only to discuss, but to understand, at least on a personal level, the significance of Purpose. This is especially true if we accept the premise that we are created in the image of our Creator. The act of creation was a purposeful act, carried out by a Loving God who tells us that He wants a personal relationship with each and every one of us. But relationships are two-way streets so at the very least, every believer has a starting point in the quest for Purpose: To seek God. Nonetheless, I recognize that Purpose is personal and thus, it is up to each of us to find our purpose, and find it, we must, for only then can an individual be in harmony with the universe.
Part of the problem with your argument is your insistence in putting the word “singular” in front purpose. Since it’s not part of the thesis statement, I’ll simply ignore the word and proceed with the debate. I’ve not read the book “Purpose Driven Life”. I don’t need a book to tell me the importance of Purpose; my intellect does that. Descartes’ simple statement, “I think, therefore I am” is all I need to establish a Purpose higher than mere existence. Rocks exist (and have purpose.) You and I think, therefore we must logically have Higher Purpose.

Thank you,

Alizé (LoversA.blogspot.com)

chele said...

Aren't you the prolific one?

I'd like to believe that I have a purpose but I don't know what the hell it is.

I don't think I was created to just exist day to day without a destination in mind. However, I cannot continue to stress over the fact that I don't know what it is. My life is my life and right now it's much more important to me to be happy with this life than to discover some cosmic purpose which probably doesn't even exist.

I just had a revelation.

Babz Rawls Ivy said...

Hey Twin Sister,

I dedicated today's post to my vibe on A Purpose Driven Life.

Love you Sharon...thanks so much for the thought provoking inspiration!!

Sharon shares said...

Wow! This was supposed to be a little insignificant post intended to answer a few questions posed to me by my Goddaughter and to address issues currently being experienced by a girlfriend turning 35. Who knew it would get all y'all's drawers in a bunch like this ;) I like, I love, I want more of it!!!

@ Serenity: Respectfully, my lady I think you really don't disagree with me at all. Of course I don't believe we are here for some random existence...you know me better than that I'm sure. My point in this post is simply that purpose is OVERRATED; especially for those individuals who allow it to have a negative instead of a positive impact on their lives.

You of all people could never fit into that category, so go on and continue to do your thing and make your big sister from afar even more proud of you than she already is...if ever there WAS a purpose driven life, YOURS IS IT... and I mean that in the best way and as a stone-cold compliment!

@ Princess: YOU just said the dang thing and you didn't have to write a book to do it! I am in agreement with you, and I too believe that much of this "debate" is truly semantics as is evidenced in many of the comments received. Please come back again, I really enjoyed having you here ;)

@ Zay: I love you too...but you gon need to back up off that nonsense about the length of a sistah's post...I needs to express myself howevah I see fit and you, and you, and you, YOU'RE GONNA LOVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

@ LL: Now you and I have had this here discussion on the phone so I'ma pretend you didn't just come all up in my house rearranging furniture and the such ;b You know me and you know what you know about me so let's just leave it at that! And one last time baby sis...PUT MY DAMNED MICROPHONE DOWN!!! lol!

@ Safa: Aha! The voice of reason...If there is such a thing as one singular purpose, you my dear Safa have given me the closest explanation of what that would look like. Your desire to worship Allah as best you can is the only purpose that I've ever heard referred to that can be singular in nature while still encompassing all else you find yourself doing in life. With you and this perspective, I take no issue and I wish you every success in fulfilling your singular purpose!

@ Lance: I'ma havta ask you like I did Zay to back up off the narrative regarding the prolific-ness of a sistah's writing habits! ;b But otherwise, that's what I'm talkin bout...JUST DO THE DAMNED THANG! Purpose or no purpose, what's the diff? It's all over right after you forget to take that next inhalation anyway so why expend the energy intellectuallizing it as opposed to just doing the dayummmm thang!

@ Cap: Dang gurl! You sound like Dan Quayle or somebody! "I know Sharon (JFK) and you madame are no purposeless woman (JFK)!" LOL! I never said I was just bumping around the world in randomness, I simply said that I just let the world do what it do while I do what I do and I don't spend much time trying to understand, identify, fulfill my purpose as I spose if it is truly the purpose I was sent here to fulfill, that will come to pass without me stressing and wasting energy trying to look like I knew that was exactly why I'm here...however, it's great to know I made such an impact on a sistah I respect so much...I'll take this comment as a huge compliment and let my ego grow another 3 times its normal size ;)

@ Cap and Lance: WTH...y'all gon havta get some hobbies or sumthin' ;)

@ lovebabz: Wonder Twin Powers Activate! Come now twin...don't get stressed, my point is purpose should be a positive thing in one's life or one should not allow it to dominate their thoughts, actions, reactions. When purpose brings only negative self-evaluation and causes lowered self-esteem as it does in the case of many of those I know, then it needs to be relegated to a back seat as it is not helping those individuals to move to that place of love you and I so fondly expect every single day of our lives. For those like you and me, purpose like most everything in our lives is a positive; however there are others who should just do life and let purpose whatever it is take care of itself in my opinion. As always, I love, love, love when my twin stops in ;)

@ Zay (AGAIN ;): Okay, you did hone in on the thesis sentence which if more folk had done, this comment section might have been a lot less fun. Beyond that, we've got isshas Devil's Advocate.

I have purpose, you have purpose, and according to you, everything has purpose. With this, I agree, but you used a path of logic that actually negates your own point.

You said,

"I don’t need a book to tell me the importance of Purpose; my intellect does that. Descartes’ simple statement, “I think, therefore I am” is all I need to establish a Purpose higher than mere existence."

However, I suggest (now it's my turn to play DA ;) that the statement "I think, therefore I am" indicates that being (i.e. I am) is the only reason you and I are here and that being (or in your words "mere existence") may be our only purpose. After all, the quote is NOT "I think, therefore I must have a higher purpose", to the contrary it is "I think therefore I am (i.e. exist) which directly contradicts your assertion of this lofty purpose higher than mere existence of which you speak. Additionally, you speak of rocks having purpose, but as I understand rocks, they do NOT think, and if Descartes' infamous philosophy assigns existence based on ability to think, do objects/creatures which/who don't think, (i.e. rocks) really exist at all... i.e. "I don't think, therefore I am NOT?? lol

You see my friend, Devil's Advocate is a game two can play...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

@ Chele: See, I wasn't even trying to be prolific...I was just trying to get across the point you stated in your comment

"I don't think I was created to just exist day to day without a destination in mind. However, I cannot continue to stress over the fact that I don't know what it is. My life is my life and right now it's much more important to me to be happy with this life than to discover some cosmic purpose which probably doesn't even exist."

Maybe I shoulda written the following:

DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY!!

Even though I took the long way to get to that point, I hope that it was your revelation ;)

@ My Twin: I'm coming over to see...

Xave said...

You sure took you long enough! But at least it was worth the wait ;-)

Purpose is inherent to all matter, living or inanimate. I speak of rocks having purpose, and all downtrodden people with no access to guns know the purpose of rocks all too well, even as the rocks themselves remain blissfully unaware of that purpose. And your point (which is really my point,) that to merely exist may be ones sole purpose, is a weak attempt to use my own arguments against me. When speaking of humans, I spoke not of mere purpose, but of Higher Purpose. The incredible thing about being created in the image of the Creator, is that we can be as unaware of our purpose as rocks and still fulfill our purpose. Obviously you won’t let me get away with a statement like that without a solid example so I came prepared.

For 15 years Terri Schiavo lived in what doctors described as a “persistent vegetative state”. I suppose some would crudely say that she was a vegetable. Her parents argued that she was not a vegetable at all, but a person capable of showing love and being loved. They argued that she would often smile when she saw her mother. Well her husband begged to differ. To paraphrase him, "That's not a smile, that's just Terri's body reacting to a painful gas bubble logged in her chest." No, he didn't actually say that, what he said was far worse. As Terri's husband, and legal guardian, he had stopped going to visit her many, many years before starting the lengthy legal battle to have her feeding tubes removed. He argued that her life was meaningless and that she would not have wanted to live this way. In the end, the court sided with the husband. Poor Terri was deemed to be not much more than a vegetable after all. The quality of her life was judged by many to be worth less than the food she required to live. While I, and many like me, still mourn the outcome of that case, one thing is undeniable: Though she was unaware of it, Terri ignited a national debate about euthanasia, quality of life, and the sanctity of life in general. I argue that unbeknownst to her, Terri Schiavo’s mere existence was pregnant with Higher Purpose.

If we as humans, simply recognize that we are indeed created in the image of our Creator, then even the simplest of our endeavors takes on greater meaning so that collectively, all the little things we do, like getting up to go to work, preparing lunch for the kids, maintaining an attractive appearance for our spouse, or struggling through night school, invest our life with a sense of that Higher Purpose. We don’t need to win a Nobel peace prize, or make the New York Times best-sellers list. We simply need to be aware of whose image we are made in, and our awareness of purpose grows naturally from that.

Peace and Love,

Alizé (LoversA.blogspot.com)

CapCity said...

y'all be gitting all DEEP over here (Sharon & Zay;-)! LOL!

Babz Rawls Ivy said...

Sharon!
Come out Come Out WHERE EVER YOU ARE?!!!!!

Missing you Twin!

Rich Fitzgerald said...

y'all some long winded folks up in here. I'll be back to read later.