meaning, purpose

“My purpose is to be happy”. But happiness is an emotion. Is that okay?

"My goal is to be happy" doesn't mean what we really want it to. Happiness is an emotion. What people seek is something more. The Ancient Greeks had a better word than happiness: Eudaimonia... https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1564012253363507200

Would you rather be happy or normal? https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1561904910836584448

Normal means being able to cope with everything normally, be it happiness or sadness. Everything needs to be in balance. One can be happy in denial or delusion too. Normal is the baseline you need so that you can start truly fixing things so you can become happy. Methinks. I pick normal because your followers are going to overwhelmingly pick happy and thus picking happy is the normal thing

Andrei Tarkovsky, in his diaries, said that human life as a whole does not have a clear purpose because then, a human would be slave to that purpose. Unlike animal or plant, whose life has a clear purpose - to reproduce, a human being can willingly "exit" the biological purpose and live another sort of purpose and life. However, this vastness of options for purpose that humans have often also leaves them confused and purposeless - what is to be done, what to choose among all of those options? https://www.orphicinscendence.com/post/ten-ways-to-breathe-meaning-into-existence

“Love life more than the meaning of it” is his words, beautifully said. The author of the post listed 10 more ways to lead a meaningful existence, like see everything as an experience, accept that nothing is permanent (so it makes you want to be more present), and have faith in the age of cynicism.

Implicit in this question is a common misunderstanding that purpose is a place you arrive at, and then you’re done. Purpose, instead of being a destination you reach once in the far off future, is a daily practice. —To find the meaning of my life is to find the meaning of my day. https://askjerry.substack.com/p/jerry-colonna-on-exploring-purpose

If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night I bet they'd live a lot differently. When you look into infinity, you realize there are more important things than what people do all day.

Why the need of the adult for existential meaning? Children don't seem to need it.

"What makes life worth living? No child asks itself that question. To children life is self-evident. Life goes without saying: whether it is good or bad makes no difference. This is because children don't see the world, don't observe the world, don't contemplate the world, but are so deeply immersed in the world that they don't distinguish between it and their own selves.”

Author William Martin on the wonders of ordinary life:

"Do not ask your children

to strive for extraordinary lives.

Such striving may seem admirable,

but it is the way of foolishness.

Help them instead to find the wonder

and the marvel of an ordinary life.

Show them the joy of tasting

tomatoes, apples and pears.

Show them how to cry

when pets and people die.

Show them the infinite pleasure

in the touch of a hand.

And make the ordinary come alive for them.

The extraordinary will take care of itself."

"The secret is not to find the meaning of life, but to use your life to make things that are meaningful.”