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I am getting old. I shall be 58 in December. Now, as soon as you say something like that these days, some folk will get uncomfortable and say things like “age is relative” or “you’re as old as you feel”. Well I don’t measure my age in geological terms, so it’s not relative and I’m not feeling anyone especially young at the moment, so both schools or thoughts can sod off. I am getting old by the yardstick we measure human life by, namely years. I have specific, age related health issues and I just don’t feel as energised as I did a decade ago. There are minor signs, such as deciding to go to bed earlier and taking longer to get dressed after taking a shower. I’m not at death’s door but I am slowing up physically. It would also appear that my reactions are also slowing down as I tend to get massacred in any FPS I play these days. So far, my mental faculties seem to be holding up. However, that is the one thing I worry about the most. The potential loss of cognitive abilities scares the shit out of me.
I am getting old. I shall be 58 in December. Now, as soon as you say something like that these days, some folk will get uncomfortable and say things like “age is relative” or “you’re as old as you feel”. Well I don’t measure my age in geological terms, so it’s not relative and I’m not feeling anyone especially young at the moment, so both schools or thoughts can sod off. I am getting old by the yardstick we measure human life by, namely years. I have specific, age related health issues and I just don’t feel as energised as I did a decade ago. There are minor signs, such as deciding to go to bed earlier and taking longer to get dressed after taking a shower. I’m not at death’s door but I am slowing up physically. It would also appear that my reactions are also slowing down as I tend to get massacred in any FPS I play these days. So far, my mental faculties seem to be holding up. However, that is the one thing I worry about the most. The potential loss of cognitive abilities scares the shit out of me.
As you get older, you tend to become more philosophical. Possibly because you have less immediate demands upon you, so you have more time to think and reflect upon “life, the universe and everything”. These musings are vastly different from those you had with your friends, as a teenager. Those late night discussions were often ill informed, naive and tempered by substance abuse. The sort of personal reflections I indulge in now are couched in hard experiences and not all of them are good. I also have a lifetime association with organised religion, both tangential and direct, to draw upon. Another factor is that I’ve read prodigiously over the course of my life, across a range of disciplines. Hence, I reached a point in my life where it is assumed by my peers that I should know something by now. I’ve even had a younger acquaintance ask me if I’m any closer to figuring it all out.
Well it is my considered opinion that all questions about the so-called meaning of life are pretty much pointless. Why, you ask? Because there basically isn’t one. Human life on this planet is just an accidental by product of other natural processes. There isn’t a plan. There’s nothing next, it doesn’t get better and your time here is broadly irrelevant and futile. Not futile enough for me to top myself. There are still plenty of pointless distractions to pursue or indulge in the meantime. But overall, what you see is what you get in life. Through a caprice of birth you either get lucky and have decades of hedonistic pleasure, or you work hard for not much and experience intermittent moments of joy, or you have an utterly terrible life filled with pain, suffering and misery. Life is inherently unfair and human beings continuously act against their own best interests. If you pick up a history book you’ll see that we make the same mistakes, again and again. Like Electronic Arts.
So what do you do in light of this revelation? Well it’s up to us to impose our own meaning and purpose upon our lives. Also, accept the fact that some things are nothing more than the sum of their parts. One of the questions that has always gotten on my Tatty Bojangles is this “science can explain the how and why but not the meaning”. Well Colin, because it’s always some p’tak called Colin who trots this drivel out, have you ever considered that there’s no requirement for everything to have a meaning? But I digress, if you’re finding it hard, coming up with ideas for the purpose of life, consider this one. “Try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations”. If that’s too complex, how about this one? “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always”. Even to Colin, I guess.
