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Original poster

What is the meaning of life - in very simple terms

152 replies

Lotuslots · 17/07/2019 10:25

Why do some people get to be born in such happy gentle and supportive families and live such happy lives being oh so happy and gentle and supportive.
Why do some of us grow up with absolutely shit parents who give us no support; who we actively have to try and overcome just to live a non-criminal and non drain on society life.
Why are some born so beautiful. Life at their feet just because of how they look.
Are most of us just meant to be ordinary. Struggling through life and then dying with no real thought of what it was all about.
Is there a higher purpose we should think about everyday - those of us already seemingly confined to an "ordinary life". But circumstances shouldn't really constrain us from knowing something more meaningful.
Does this make any sense at all?

OP posts:
mummy1970abc · 17/07/2019 13:21

This book is meant to be very helpful in identifying our purpose in life..

Man's Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positively about, and then immersively imagining that outcome.

Withnailandaye · 17/07/2019 13:56

I like this.. not really the meaning you were looking for but its a nice read...

What is the meaning of life - in very simple terms
AquaPris · 17/07/2019 18:39

We're animals who got too smart and now we're all fucked up. Life and luck are random and so you have to create meaning - leave a positive mark on the earth.

AquaPris · 17/07/2019 18:43

And yes, of course most people are ordinary, that's the point of ordinariness, it's ordinary.

lazylinguist · 17/07/2019 18:50

Totally baffled at why you're getting a hard time on this thread, OP. It's a reasonable question - after all, people have been asking it for thousands of years!

I don't think there's a meaning to life. Like AquaPris says we are animals with unusually clever brains, which means we are aware enough to do amazing things and be really creative, but also means that we're all too aware of the sadnesses and inequalities in life.

The place, time and family you're born into are pure luck. No rhyme or reason to it. You are dealt a hand and it's up to you what you do with it. It's terrible that some people are dealt such a shitty hand.

SmallHope · 17/07/2019 19:05

Okay I'm ignoring the thread drama...

I agree with PP saying life is what you make it, but a bad start to life is difficult to uncurl yourself from.

I think the meaning of life, for me, is found in the things I find have meaning every day.

Little things like a cup of tea on a cold day, saying good morning to a stranger when walking to the shop, getting into bed with freshly cleaned sheets, making my DH proper belly laugh, and then bigger things like losing weight, the accomplishment of running my first 5k, going to uni in my 30s and getting a First...

I think going all existential can get depressing, it's so easy to go down the rabbit hope of thinking "but what is the point? (I've done it myself) and so it's best to focus on the things that make you smile, because that matters just as much as anything else.

CardsforKittens · 17/07/2019 19:08

This is the song I always think of when life seems unfair. I suppose I’m a nihilist (sceptic? pessimist?) like some PP.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

NeatFreakMama · 17/07/2019 19:45

I think it's about finding your own meaning and living that.

SalemShadow · 17/07/2019 21:15

I have no idea but if you find out please tell me!!

Equatoria · 17/07/2019 21:25

There may be a meaning somewhere. There is so much we don't know yet, it seems a bit of a cop-out to stop searching. Even if contemplating the vast universe does my head in Grin

XingMing · 17/07/2019 21:26

Reproduction of the species... we seem to like it a lot, and it doesn't always happen to work out perfectly, so some get good lucky lives and others don't. I may not deserve my life but I do my best for my family, my friends and my community.

flowery · 17/07/2019 21:46

I think many of the responses to this thread are really really disappointing. I think Mumsnet ought to be ‘better’ than this when presented with the OP’s initial post which was a perfectly reasonable and thoughtful and thought-provoking question that didn’t deserve ridicule.

And I’ve been here an awful long time so it’s not that I don’t get MN. I’m just disappointed in this thread. We can do better than this as a community, surely?

Elliebellbell · 17/07/2019 21:51

So the op telling people to fuck off on the first page isn't "disappointing" ok then.

Lazydaisies · 17/07/2019 22:06

Lots of life involves suffering at some point or another. No one escapes suffering. Coming to terms with that, not taking it personally, playing the hand you are dealt in the best way you can, trying to build up and focus on positive relationships and experiences in your life, that for me is the meaning of life.

FloofenHoofen · 17/07/2019 22:17

I don't think OP is angry, I think people here have riled her up very typical of mumsnet, I don't think you've found the meaning to life but you've certainly found the meaning to mumsnet.

ravenshope · 17/07/2019 22:20

Hugs, OP.
All I've found in discussing this is the idea everyone needs to come up with their own meaning.
Which doesn't necessarily help.
You are not alone in struggling with this xxxx

maddening · 17/07/2019 22:22

What on earth happened? Nothing bad was said before the op started having a go? Most odd!

donquixotedelamancha · 17/07/2019 22:26

Are people just defensive.

Well, OP, I would agree that at least one person is :-)

Leave it up please @MNHQ. I don't like the current trend to take down whenever an OP asks. This one is great fun.

Has anyone mentioned that the meaning of life is 42? (I could check.....nah, I bet no one has done that joke yet.)

Theknitwitch · 17/07/2019 22:29

Mummy1970. Excellent book 👍

donquixotedelamancha · 17/07/2019 22:30

I don't think OP is angry, I think people here have riled her up very typical of mumsnet

Which comments do you think prompted the initial aggressive responses? OP seemed to be losing her rag from 14 posts in. I can see anything to which her response is remotely proportionate.

Moomin12345 · 17/07/2019 22:30

Happiness/reproduction - depending on person. Any other questions?

Elliebellbell · 17/07/2019 22:40

I was here from beginning of thread which clearly some latecomers haven't fully read. Op was aggressive and unpleasant from first page.

If you've only read op responses it doesn't give a clear indication of the thread. She has been downright horrible.

maddening · 17/07/2019 22:44

Ps. Op the very nature of your question means something different to each person, I would go so far as to suggest that most people wonder these things, it is what gives rise to religions and philosophy, the whole wondering why, and how and explaining things like tragedy - for example in your post comparing people born to nice families vs those born to horrible families, however there are people who have suffered total and utter horror comparatively.

So you will get many answers as no one actually knows and everyone has a right to their own opinion.

recrudescence · 17/07/2019 23:04

When a whirlewind hath blown the dust of a churchyard into the Church, and the man sweeps out the dust of the Church into the Churchyard, who will undertake to sift those dusts again and to pronounce, This is the patrician, this is the noble flowre, and this the yeomanly, this the Plebeian bran?

LauraMipsum · 17/07/2019 23:09

I think the answer is that we are here to love and be loved.