I was sitting on the window ledge talking to the daughter of this and that. Outside, it was a beautiful spring day. All the world seemed to be up and about. Bustling, blooming, tittering, fluttering, racing. āLife seems abuzz with a sense of purpose and so full of meaning today, donāt you think?ā I said lazily to the daughter. I myself was content sipping coffee in my night suit.
She laughed and said something to the effect of meaning being humbug or some such thing. I sipped my coffee and waited. Seeing that she had lapsed into painting, I prodded on giving her the talk about finding the meaning of life, and how some days are more important than others etc. When she still didnāt bite, I pulled Mark Twain for support.
āBut you know what Mark Twain said? Two days are the most important days of your life. The day you were born and the day you figured out why you were born.ā
āAnd who is Mark Twain exactly to be talking about this? ā
āMark Twain!ā
āI know who Mark Twain is. Point is: of course his saying would be skewed towards purpose and meaning and all that because that is what he spent his life trying to find the answer to. I just donāt think there is one grand purpose to each of us you know? I mean, saying that we all come to this Earth with one grand purpose is subscribing to this theory of God putting us all here for this-and-this-and-this. There is nothing like that. The accident of life happened. A thousand things couldāve gone wrong, couldāve gone differently, but they panned out this way and therefore we are here. When we are here, I get that we must do things to be useful, happy etc, but that is it. There is no, like grand scheme of things or whatever!ā
āSo, you are saying it is okay for me to be wasting time like this, when I could be doing anything.ā
āWellā¦again. There is no wasting time.ā

āAh – but that is the arrogance of youth isnāt it? Time isnāt exactly ticking for you all.ā
āAt your fine age, it is. ā she laughed a bit too callously for my taste, but that is youth all over.
āSo, you are saying that if all I want to do is look at the wind rustle through that pine tree, it isnāt a waste of time.ā
āSureā¦if thatās what you want to do!ā she rolled her eyes and I couldnāt blame her. Watching wind rustle through pine trees isnāt exactly teen-buzz.
āI get that you are cuckoo when it comes to nature stuff. But weāve all got to do stuff we donāt like, stuff we like, stuff thatās just got to be done whether you like it or not. But whatever it is, if you are experiencing it, it isnāt a waste of time. And yes, all this stuff about meaning of life etc has been done by philosophers who spent their entire time trying to figure out the answer to that. If you were to pick any random person who lived 200 hundred years ago, what was their purpose? I donāt know. But if they lived happily, then I suppose they had a good life, and thatās what matters.ā
I looked at the child astounded. There she was, teaching me to experience life, when she seemed to have only been born a few short years ago.Ā
āAnd this thing about the most important days of your life. The pressure of a thing like that could completely throw enjoying the day you know? I mean I could say it was the day I got a brother. But it wasnāt you know? It was more like a normal day with a wailing baby sure, but in time,Ā he grew up to be a brother that I enjoy. Donāt tell him that!ā
She isnāt the philosophical kind. She is barely the deep thinking kind, yet she has this refreshing outlook that bodes for a contentment in life that I strive for. At this fine age, as she so eloquently described my age, I still confuse achievement, purpose, meaning and life. Here she was, happily painting one minute, off to hang out with her friends the next, while keeping up with her course work, and all that was required to be done.
But I disagreed with her on one thing. I do think there are special days and special moments – even if we donāt always celebrate them. The day she was born is one of them.
The whole chat left me feeling like I had read that quote by Ursula K Le Guin again. It never fails to enlighten and uplift.
Ursula K Le Guin
āThings donāt have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. Whatās the function of a galaxy? I donāt know if our life has a purpose and I donāt see that it matters. What does matter is that weāre a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.ā
