A MEANINGFUL ABYSS
What does life mean? What is our true purpose? Where is the ultimate goal along this life's journey taking us?
There are a multitude of unanswerable conundrums which we repeatedly test ourselves with. These deep-reaching enquiries for truths will materialise from quiet isolation – pondered consciously in undistracted and reflective holiday instants as the sun, illuminating amber/golden 'god's fingers', sets over a tranquil sea. Or at other moments of subdued pensiveness, these questions can become an underlined acknowledgement of unknowns, felt subconsciously. I liken it to a feeling not too dissimilar from sensing eyes watching from behind or the tightening of the muscles emanating from the pits of our stomach before rising to the nape of the neck to register on our delayed brains – a pre-warning signal perceived in the preliminary steps whilst approaching a cliff edge.
We 'live' in a constant stream of enquiry. Life comes down to survival on a base level as we obviously need to fuel our bodies and steer clear of environmental dangers, but underneath this primal existence, lies an abyss – an infinite unknown. It's pondering our point of living and questioning what reality 'is' which manifests anxiety. And because we can't ever grasp the solutions, this 'niggle' that's lying underneath everything we do as humans, is what we sense and fear.
So if death is the ultimate goal of our physical lives, what is our purpose of 'living' up until that unavoidable point when we cease to exist? Surely we can't just be here on Earth without a purpose? This is a thing we all face daily, even if we don't always actively question it. Living a meaningful life, can be whatever we choose it to be, but however we choose to live our life, there always remains that concept of the unknown abyss.
Physics tells us we are bundles of atomic vibrational energy, held in a soup of gasses to a denser vibrational planetary rock by gravitational forces, rotating in a vacuum of an expansive infinite universe. Therefore there's really nothing to actually 'support' us. It's why we still cling to religions with notions of heaven, spiritual ascension and a sweet afterlife, when we have cold science. Blind faith helps to settle the anxiety down. But none of these alternative concepts of reality really makes any sense to a rational thinker – it's all self-deceit at best. So how do we manage our daily lives knowing it has no real meaning, where purpose is a human construct and the goal is eternal nothingness? Depression surely that way lies?!
Embrace The Unknown
The only way we can overcome our fears and quash the 'why bother' attitudes which hold us back from even trying to make life worthwhile, is to step forward into thin air anyway. Fear feeds fear but action creates opportunities for growth. Life is short and waiting for the end-goal is pointless in itself if we acknowledge that the end is ultimately ceasing to be. We have no way of controlling factors outside of ourselves, or find the ultimate answers to impossible questions, so the only way to live life is to wrestle control over the way we think – which is no easy feat!
Every time we try and attribute meaning to life – it can be stripped away into insignificance, so making plans for the future is a futile pursuit. It's all about right now! Forget about purpose. Give up on attaining answers. Just do what you enjoy doing and make that goal your life's purpose.
Either we drown in the fearful darkness, tread ever-more anxiously deeper into the quicksand towards our final and inevitable destiny, or we soar above the fear to float lightly within the infinite – and if we choose to fully embrace it – comforting nothingness of the abyss.
