A friend told me she was laughing her way through my satirical post, “Hannibal Lecter’s Guide To Haitian Cuisine,” until the sentence in which Hannibal asserts that were Donald Trump to become his dinner, Trump “would finally have served a useful purpose.”
That gave her pause to reflect on what useful purpose her own life had served. Had she made the most of her assets and opportunities? Had the world benefitted from her existence? I was quick to assure her that one purpose she had fulfilled with great success was to enhance my own time on Earth, and that her accomplishments had doubtless benefitted many others in many ways.
True. But still, my assurances bypassed the issue of whether, aside from our value to those with whom we share love and friendship, in a sense a closed loop, is there really any purpose to our existence beyond the imperative to survive in order to procreate? This purpose is thrust on us by our unlikely arrival into the universe as living things. While it is the core purpose, one we share with all other organisms, humans have a perhaps unique need to define their purposes within other contexts. These include our historical role in the grand scheme of life on our world, our usefulness to society at large, our social connections and our personal development. We may also be inclined to question what, if any purpose we may serve in the context of the universe.
Let me make short work of that last context by saying that while many consider it a valid question, I see it as a conceit that is often tied in with religious beliefs that humans are assigned roles in God’s personal plan for a universe that was created specifically to revolve around us. I assert categorically that we are meaningless and unnecessary to the great forces in the infinite cosmos. They would operate no differently were we never to have evolved.
That resolved, we are left to ponder our purposes only as they are defined by our roles here on Earth.
Further, purpose cannot be separated from instinct, especially the social instincts that address the imperative of the survival of the individual and of our species. In fact, our personal purposes cannot be separated from the purpose of species survival. For example, my choice of a medical career combined my personal purposes of establishing an identity, mastering a daunting task, building a secure situation for my survival and that of my family, with the purpose of enhancing the health and success of my fellow Man, the aspect connected to preservation of the species. No doubt these dual purposes can be found in each reader’s quest to find purpose.
I say “find purpose” because I agree with the existentialists that the meaning of life is a function of the choices we make that are, in turn, driven by our inner value systems. The purpose of an entrepreneur may be to make as great a fortune for themselves as possible whether or not their product contributes anything of much benefit to society. At a greater extreme, of a criminal’s is to take as much as possible of the property of others. These are in stark contrast to the purpose of a Gandhi or a Mother Theresa.
Our chosen purposes depend to a great extent on our inherent talents and gifts. One blessed with talents would likely pursue a career utilizing these talents.
Ah, but once engaged in that career, for example musician, more choices need to be made. Will they simply provide entertainment or will they inject social consciousness into their creations? Will their music stagnate through their careers as it may be lucrative, or will they take the risk to explore new avenues of expression?
The need to feel a sense of purpose is stronger or weaker in each individual. Some give it little or no thought, going along day to day doing whatever they do to fulfill the more fundamental elements of survival. Some of these may simply not be philosophically disposed while others are struggling just to survive leaving them no time for introspection. Those with the proclivity for and the leisure for reflection, like my friend, cannot help but agonize over whether their chosen purposes have sufficient merit. Purpose is a slippery thing. It can change with time as we enter into new circumstances brought on by changes both in ourselves as we age and in events that unfold during the era through which we are living.
Central to my personal concept of purpose is that what purposes we choose to serve, as long as they are ethical, is less important than striving to carry them out to the best of our ability. The fact that we care enough about ourselves and others to do our best and still to question whether it is good enough may itself be a measure of our worth, part of the justification for our existence. In this sense, the measure of one’s value lies less in what we accomplish in an absolute sense than in what we hoped to and strove to accomplish. Perhaps more important is how we treated others along the way. Those with high personal expectations may overlook this.
Accordingly, in the case of my friend and others like her, it is sometimes easier to appreciate the value of others than of themselves.
An Author's Inner Mind 