smokes and falling leaves

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

This afternoon I stood outside my BYU approved house for a smoke. I wanted to clear my head a little bit, and the smoke did not achieve that, but watching leaves fall did. They reminded me of how finite our lives really are. I imagined each leaf as a human being, dying somewhere, and how we never stop dying. Needless to say it was a depressing moment of reflection, but perhaps valuable.

So how long do we have on the tree, connected to our life line of air, water, and nourishment? Some a while, others, not so long.

Throughout my life I have been told one narrative that explains purpose in life. It is the narrative that God loves us, that the pain and suffering (as brutal as it can be) is a step in a progressive plan created by a loving Father in Heaven. I bet I have heard the answers you all will give, but I am hoping to hear something new, something that will give me more hope.

How do you all derive purpose from life?

posted by Anonymous at 1:49 PM  

  • On 6:24 PM, Blogger Unknown said…
    Thanks for your responses. I have thought about them all. I likely appear more hopeless than I really am. It is a difficult task for me however to derive meaning from the common American lifestyle.

    What meaning is there in working your life away as part of an unjust fear driven economy? What meaning is there in most social interactions if those social interactions are most often thought of as necessary, by most participants, because they fuel the system and order of society?

    Even love seems to be the enemy of America, as it sponsors action based on emotion, non-comformity, and above all a discontent for a society that often tears lovers apart. I hate the system most of all because it has pulled individuals I love away from me into a far off world, to where I cannot follow.   

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