What do you mean!?

Fundamentally, on a macro and a micro scale, there is little meaning and purpose to existence. This thought is one that I find compelling, as through this lense, two very polarising views can be achieved. And it is that, which compels.

The first view one might find, is that if we are all doomed to achieve little to no meaning and, in the fullness of time, be eternally forgotten, then why must it matter what I do now? If everything is forgotten, those moments of embarrassment, the epic fails, the mistakes of conscience, they too are fundamentally meaningless in that lense. The burden of living with mistakes and the memory of those mistakes need not hold you back. The shackles are removed. It doesn’t matter if you fail, because at the end of the day, nothing matters. So, you might as well do as you please while you have the opportunity and march forward with the confidence and passion of a person who knows that there are no limits.

There is however, another side to this coin. If nothing matters, then equally, our successes do not matter. Name the person who invented the wheel? Or who created sliced bread? Do we know who, how or when fire was discovered? For those of us who seek to live on beyond our own mortality trough endeavours such as art, it is scary to think that even in that art, we will suffer death once more. As with all things, there is balance, and so with creation, there is inevitably destruction.

Ours is a world starved of real meaning, real purpose. So the idea that on a fundamental level, there is no meaning, it is frightfully scary. But, there is another point to consider. These arguments have been formed on the basis of the extreme macro and micro scale, but in the world that we inhabit, this limited time and space, we can choose to derive any meaning that takes our pleasure.

I would say that we should use these different lenses, these different perspectives to our advantage. Rejoice in the joy of happy times, for that does have merit and meaning, but equally, in those moments of fear, and feeling nervous, what real cost a negative outcome? So you ruined a wedding, in 1 million year weddings might not even exist!

For artists, I would hope that even though art, like ourselves, has a shelf life, the merits of the art whilst it can be enjoyed, remain strong and true. Reaching one person, for one minute has as much merit as reaching planets for millennia. It might mean nothing, but that means everything.