There comes a point in every person's life when they begin to question
things. They start to think about their course in life, and they wonder if
what they are doing is really what they want to have spent their time on when
they are looking back on their time in this world. They start to think about
"the big picture", the world in general, what drives people to do the things
they do, or indeed, what drives them to do anything.
  There comes a time to everyone when they wonder what it's all for. Several
reasons have been given to the ultimate question of "What is the meaning of
life?", but it seems there are few answers which people can live by for the
80 years or so that we are given in this life, without calling them into
question. Ultimately, everyone faces death, and when they do, will they look
back on their life and feel it was worth living, or will they take the view
of the nihilists who say "We only live to die"?
  The answer must be different for everyone. Every person who feels they will
die soon must go through some of the most intense thinking of their life.
Even so, the answers people give to the reason for life usually fall into a
few general groups.
  On one side are the people who say that "life is to enjoy". This seems like
a fairly obvious assessment at first. People are capable of being happy, and
ultimately, almost everything people do is to create more happiness, is it
not? Whatever we do, whether it is work, study, or play, it is ultimately
done so that life will be more comfortable, more pleasant. People get jobs so
that they can make money, and the point of this money is so they can buy
things to improve the quality of their life. People go to school so they can
get better jobs which will make them more money, and this is ultimately all
for the sake of their enjoyment. All over the world, this story is not much
different, even in non-capitalist countries.
  And yet, these are the people who make the world less enjoyable. A person
who lives life only for themselves makes the world a miserable place. And so
it seems that to have a truly meaningful and rewarding life, you must live
your life not to simply enjoy yourself, but to change the world, hopefully
for the better. We are given only a short time here, and while we're here, if
we have left this world a little better than when we first got here, then our
life was worth the living; So it is said. Fixing the world's problems gives
people a sense of reward. It makes life good. Helping a person who had a
problem, fixing something that was wrong in the world and making it right,
this is what really makes people happy and can lead to a truly fulfilling
life.
  And yet... Imagine a world full of such people. The selfishness of human
nature dictates that the world will always be populated mainly by people who
live for themselves, but imagine if the world actually were full of angelic
people who dedicated their lives to making the world a better place for
others. It is difficult to imagine such a world; It would be so far removed
from the world we live in today, but imagine it, if you can. Humans are an
amazing breed of people. With all the knowledge and resources at our
disposal, surely we could do something amazing with the world. With all of
our technology, used for good instead of for waging war and trying to gain
more wealth and luxury, surely life would be something exceeding even our
wildest dreams.
  And yet... What would there be to live for? What would people do with their
days in life? With nothing wrong in life, nothing to change or fix, humans
would have nothing to do. Life would be easy and nice, perhaps, but it would
also be rather boring because there would be no point to it. If you can't
change the world, then you can't do much with your life, and you can't (or
at least, shouldn't) change a perfect world. It seems, then, that one of the
requirements for a person to live a productive, active life is a steady
supply of problems to deal with. Problems gives us something to do; They give
us direction and drive. No problems equals no goals, which equals no
direction in life.
  Of course you could always try to expand on life. And this is exactly what
people did. It is, indeed, what has created many of the world's problems. By
expanding on life, I mean improving it to make it more interesting, which in
this world is usually done through science and technology. The car, which
made it easier to travel, the television, which made it easier to be
entertained, the computer, which made it easier to be informed... All of
these were things that people did, not because there was a need for them, per
se, but rather because they "improved" life. Of course for all of these
inventions, for all the convenience and entertainment they have brought
people, there has been a significant negative effect as well. It was
precisely this desire to improve upon life that has destroyed the world.
People were not happy with just living; They wanted to squeeze every last
drop of enjoyment out of life that they could.
  What, then, should we do? Be happy to have food to eat and a place to sleep
at night, and spend the rest of the day staring at the clouds? It is
difficult to say. Life is a delicate balance: Simplifying life solves many
problems, but leaves people feeling strangely unfulfilled, as though their
lives were lacking in meaning. Complicating life makes it better, but also
makes it worse.
  Life is big. This world is pretty big. And things within it affect each
other in strange and wondrous ways, ways which we sometimes are not even
aware of. Something a person does in their life can sometimes affect the life
of someone else 100 years later, whether for good or for bad, in a way that
nobody could have foreseen. Life's like that. In science there is a field of
study known as chaos theory; In a chaos system, everything affects everything
else in subtle ways. A very small change in one part of the system can create
much larger effects in another part of the system, effects that were
difficult to predict without actually seeing them unfold.
  The world is the world's largest chaos system. The Earth is, ultimately, a
machine, an innumerably grand collection of atoms and molecules, arranged in
a particular form and each affecting each other in a particular way. As I go
through this life, I've come to appreciate the way small things can make big
things happen. It's a funny old world we live in, and I would encourage its
residents to start thinking about the consequences of the actions we take.
The things we do in our lives will have far-reaching effects, and of course
we will never know all of them. But we might be able to predict some of them.
Life seems somehow different if you actually think about the effect that you
are having on the world. And affecting it you are: Nobody goes through this
world without changing it somehow, even slightly. When you understand this,
every action seems to take on enormous magnitude, every word you speak seems
to carry a heavy weight.
  Problems come and go in this world, both for individual people and for the
world at large. Sometimes life is good, without you even trying to make it
so. Sometimes life is bad, no matter how hard you try to improve it.
Sometimes your actions come back to you. Sometimes they reach people you
didn't think they'd reach. Sometimes they do things you didn't think they'd
do. Sometimes you won't know about the results, but the results will always
be there.
  It's still hard to decide on an ultimate goal for life. But one thing is
clear: We only have a set time on this world. Our life only lasts so long.
And while we live it, we might as well just live the very best life we can.