THE ULTIMATE QUESTION
question purpose question purpose question purpose
“Live your light.” – Bringers of the Dawn
What is the purpose of life?
It’s a question that’s troubled us since we were young: why are we here? For some the purpose of living means finding success or happiness. While for others there is no purpose because it’s all random and nothing exists after life. Our idea of “purpose” tends to be based on our own moral, religious, and political beliefs. Which, as we know, differs extensively from person to person and culture to culture. This question has been asked, presumably, since the beginning of humankind and we’ve yet to uncover an answer.
As much as we wish and hope for clarity to this answer, we’ve realized there’s no one on Earth past, present, or future that can definitively say what our individual or collective purpose is. So we end up creating and following our own definition of purpose. There are those that know early on that they were born to sing, be a comedian, or save lives. They can sense their calling. But unfortunately not everyone figures out what their purpose is. So some decide that they have no purpose, thus there is no purpose.
Whether we find it or not, it’s logical to conclude that if a significant number of people claim they found their purpose -sometimes later in life- then individual purpose does exist. This leads us to question, if we each possess an individual purpose is there also a collective purpose for humanity?
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Many of us have given up contemplating this question because there is no obvious answer and searching for one doesn’t bring us any comfort. Some of us struggle just trying to get through the day and have no need to think or worry about “purpose”. But no matter our beliefs and what we think happens to us after this life, we are here now. We are living this life now. Shouldn’t we make the most of it? Whether we know the answer or not doesn’t take away from the importance and legitimacy of the question. If individual humans have purpose, then why shouldn’t the whole of humanity?
As individuals our differences can make it feel as though we live worlds apart. Yet as human beings our commonalities unite us. If the one thing we all have in common is our human qualities, then perhaps humanity’s purpose is just being as human as possible. We all deserve to live a fulfilling and purposeful life, so we need to take a step back and contemplate why we are here. Being human means to fully feel and experience who we are and share it with the world. We need to stop settling for mediocrity and instead find strength and personal power to go after our life’s purpose.
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No matter what our individual purpose may be, we should live life with an awareness of humanity’s purpose. It’s about having compassion for one another, contributing to our communities, raising and teaching non-judgmental children, and advancing in our careers to create positive change. We aren’t here to be servants to our religion or families, or slaves to our jobs or obligations. Our importance doesn’t come from what we’re doing, but who we’re doing it with. It’s not the physical job or position in life that we learn from. It’s from the people we interact with that help enlighten us -whether we’re aware of it or not. By fulfilling our individual purpose the best that we can and learning lessons from one another, then we’re truly fulfilling humanity’s purpose.
