#meaning of life

[carpethedamndiem]

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."

- Jack Kerouac

[jackalopiel]

100 questions to talk about on the late night train at 11:04 pm (can also function as an ask list)

(second edition of this post)

1. What do you crave in a psychological sense? Intimacy, passion, purpose, belonging, social interaction, etc.?

2. What kind of emotions do the stars evoke for you, if any? The ocean, the sky, the moon?

3. Are you pretending to be something you're not?

4. Who's the most important person in your life right now? Why?

5. Do you see your parents in your appearance or behaviour? Are they favourable traits?

6. If you have siblings, are you similar to them, and in what ways? If you don't, do you think growing up with siblings would have changed your personality in any way?

7. Would you cannibalise a dead body in a life-or-death scenario? Does your answer change depending on whether they're a loved one or not?

8. In reverse, would you give permission for someone to eat you if they would die otherwise?

9. Do you know a lot about politics? Do you think it's important to be educated on them?

10. What are your feelings on cheating in relationships? Have you ever done it, has anyone ever cheated on you?

11. Do you think you have a particularly unique view on life?

12. What's your most controversial opinion? Would you state it publicly? What's the most controversial opinion that you would publicly support, if it's different?

13. Do you have trust issues?

14. What are you worried about right now, if anything?

15. Is there a song, book, movie, or other piece of media that has drastically altered your life? What was it, are there multiple?

16. What's the worst decision you've ever made? What's the best decision you've ever made?

17. What's the most interesting coincidence you've had happen to you (or someone you know)?

18. You're offered a one-way ticket to any place and time in history you want. You cannot return. You can't exist at the same time as your current self. You won't carry any diseases, nor will you be infected by others, you have enough money to survive (if relevant). You can speak the local language(s). You still look like yourself and have all your memories. Do you take this offer? Why or why not? Where do you go? What do you do? Does your answer change depending on whether you can alter the future or not?

19. In general, is there any historical event you desperately want to witness?

20. Do you think about your past or future more?

21. What's the luckiest you've ever been?

22. Do you want children? Why or why not?

23. What would you never admit to in real life?

24. Does your name suit you? Do you think you "look" like your name?

25. A classic - would you rather know the date of your death or the way you die? Would you rather know when you die or when your closest loved one dies?

26. Is marriage an important institution for you? Do you want to get married? Why or why not?

27. Do you think you have a "moral compass" and where or who do you think you got it from? Or do you think of it as something inherent to yourself?

28. What has influenced your taste in music?

29. How do you want your body to be treated after your death?

30. If you don't have tattoos, and had to get one, what would you get tattooed on you? Is getting tattooed a big deal to you? If you are tattooed, do you regret any?

31. Do you feel like you have a 'purpose'? What is it, if so?

32. What's a common thing that you think shouldn't exist (if any)?

33. What are your predictions for the next few years? Or tomorrow, even?

34. Is there someone you would do absolutely anything for? How loyal are you to your friends and family in general?

35. What's wrong with you? Physically, mentally, whatever comes to mind. What's right about you? What are your best and worst traits?

36. Do you like looking at artwork?

37. What stereotypes do you fulfil, what ones you do break?

38. Who do you miss, if anyone?

39. What taboo do you think should be discussed more, if any? Alternatively, do you think a topic that isn't taboo should be?

40. Would you sacrifice your life for a stranger? An acquaintance? A loved one?

41. Do you find it easy to ask for help?

42. Does affection come easily to you?

43. How do you express affection? How do you like to receive affection?

44. What's your pettiest "dealbreaker" in a relationship or friendship?

45. Do you put any value in the idea of "virginity"? Do you think there's a specific sexual act that makes someone no longer a virgin or is it more general sexual contact? Was/is losing your virginity a big deal to you?

46. Do you have a "right person, wrong time"?

47. Do you feel like you're impacting the world around you?

48. What do you think of the idiom "blood is thicker than water"?

49. If you have a nickname, where did it come from? Did you choose it, did someone else, did it naturally form?

50. What qualities do you find charming?

51. What can make you dislike someone very quickly?

52. Do you spend a lot of time thinking about the meaning of your life? Are you looking for meaning?

54. When were you the happiest in your life? The saddest? Why?

55. What reminds you of your childhood?

56. What (or who) do you daydream about?

57. Do you feel like you don't belong in your social circles, or in this world in general? If so, why?

58. Do you regret a lot of your choices?

59. What's something you can never tell your family?

60. What are you afraid of? What are your worst fears? Are you afraid of any of the following - the dark, fire, heights, being alone, people, spiders, snakes, blood, drowning, or death?

61. Are you a romantic person? Why?

62. What topic(s) have you drastically changed your opinion on?

63. Do you have a good relationship with your family? How would you describe your family in a single word? If your family is chosen, why or how did you choose them?

64. Do you feel like you know yourself very well?

65. When you look in the mirror, do you see yourself or your reflection? Do you make the distinction between those things?

66. If you are gay, did you struggle to accept your sexuality? Would you change it if you could?

67. What did you need to hear as a child?

68. What's the best advice you've ever been given?

69. Do you struggle with emotional expression or regulation? Do you suppress your feelings?

70. What do you hope others think of you? How would you like to be perceived?

71. Tell me something you don't like telling others.

72. Who did you last say "I love you" to? Who last said it to you?

73. Have you ever broken someone's heart? Would you change anything, looking back?

74. Do you believe in karma? Do you think someone can "deserve" bad things?

75. What is your favourite fairytale?

76. What do you label yourself as, if anything? What subcultures do you identify with, if any?

77. How long can you go without socialising?

78. Have you ever written a poem or song about someone? Or had someone write one about you? Do you hope to have either of those experiences in the future?

79. What stupid thing are you really insecure about?

80. What scars do you have, if any?

81. What's the worst crime you think you're capable of committing?

82. Do you get bored easily?

83. What's your type? Otherwise, do you think you attract a certain a sort of person?

84. What do you think is waiting for you after death, if anything? Does the idea of dying upset you? Why? Can you imagine nothingness?

85. What memories would describe as your "core" ones?

86. What could you talk about for hours?

87. What do you wish people would stop asking you?

88. What's an unusual but useful trait or talent you have?

89. Do you think of yourself as attractive?

90. What surname would you choose for yourself?

91. If I could only know one thing about you, what would be the most important thing?

92. Do you have any ghost stories? Or general encounters with the supernatural? Do you believe in ghosts?

93. What are two facts about yourself that are true, but seem contradictory? Or two beliefs you have that seem unlikely to exist together?

94. Who is the first person you tell good news to? Is is the same for bad news?

95. Where do you wish you had grown up? Do you think your childhood's natural landscape had a role in the person you are today?

96. What is the worst thing about your favourite person and the best thing about your least favourite person?

97. What is a trivial hill that you are willing to die on?

98. What genre of film or literature do you think your life is? Comedy, romance, action, horror, etc.? Alternatively, if you were written into a fictional universe, what genre would you be best suited for?

99. Do you enjoy "slice of life" media?

100. What do you want an answer to?

[pratchettquotes]

LORD, WE KNOW THERE IS NO GOOD ORDER EXCEPT THAT WHICH WE CREATE...

Azrael's expression did not change.

THERE IS NO HOPE BUT US. THERE IS NO MERCY BUT US. THERE IS NO JUSTICE. THERE IS JUST US.

The dark, sad face filled the sky.

ALL THINGS THAT ARE, ARE OURS. BUT WE MUST CARE. FOR IF WE DO NOT CARE, WE DO NOT EXIST. IF WE DO NOT EXIST, THEN THERE IS NOTHING BUT BLIND OBLIVION.

AND EVEN OBLIVION MUST END SOME DAY. LORD, WILL YOU GRANT ME JUST A LITTLE TIME? FOR THE PROPER BALANCE OF THINGS. TO RETURN WHAT WAS GIVEN. FOR THE SAKE OF PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF THE BIRDS.

Death took a step backward.

It was impossible to read expression in Azrael's features.

Death glanced sideways at the servants.

LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?

Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

[the-ephemeral-ethereal]

It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had to have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning. Living an experience, a particular fate, is accepting it fully.

from The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

[simplyconfuzed]

“the literal meaning of life is whatever you’re doing that prevents you from killing yourself”

- Albert Camus

[can-i-make-you-some-tea]

3- art by peopleiveloved

[theidealistphilosophy]

The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself.

Albert Camus, Source Unlisted.

[twosheds]

12 DAYS OF MONTYMAS - DAY EIGHT

Monty Python icons! 9 icons from each Monty Python film - to use at your disposal!

[memoryslandscape]

[Y]ou asked if I would live forever if I could, well, the answer must be no. I wouldn’t because, as far as I can see, the meaning of life is nested within the set terms of our own mortality. ‘Forever’ is both incomprehensible and utterly meaningless. I don’t believe we live just for the sake of it; rather we live our lives within the poetry of our own demise, within our own time, and our own limitations, and for that very reason alone we do so meaningfully. We work, we love, we care for each other, and we suffer together, knowing that one day we will die. The children in the schoolyard run headlong toward adulthood and their own disappearance, and we adults are the living breathing reminders of that. The man who waves at me as he walks his dog up the lane will die, as will the people filing into the church at the ringing of the bell, and the shop assistant hurrying to work, and the parking inspector, and the street sweeper, all will die in time — oh, and the squirrel, he too will die, and the flowers, the swaying trees, and the earth itself. It is toward this temporal inconvenience — our finitude — that we move, with only a few precious moments to add value to this world. What can we do in this time that we are given, that is running through our fingers, even now? How can we lighten our mutual predicament that is drawing ever closer? [T]here lies the meaning in life — it is in the expansion of ourselves, in our benevolence, to fully occupy our allotted time.

Nick Cave, from The Red Hand Files (no. 182, January 2022)

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

Newsworthy: a collection of weird headlines and book titles.

[weirdyearbook]

Source details and larger version.

It's been said that skulls are symbolic of the divine and the mortal, housed within the one vessel. Here's a treasury of vintage skull imagery.

[carpethedamndiem]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

“The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.”

-- Neil DeGrasse Tyson

[pratchettquotes]

And suddenly it dawned on the late Windle Poons that there was no such thing as somebody else's problem, and that just when you thought the world had pushed you aside it turned out to be full of strangeness. He knew from experience that the living never found out half of what was really happening, because they were too busy being the living. [...]

It was the living who ignored the strange and wonderful, because life was too full of the boring and the mundane. But it was strange. It had things in it like screws that unscrewed themselves, and little written messages for the dead.

Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

[the-ephemeral-ethereal]

I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

from The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus 

[nobeerreviews]

I've never done anything but dream. This, and this alone, has been the meaning of my life. My only real concern has been my inner life.

-- Fernando Pessoa

(Zurich, Switzerland)