Well, to look at purpose, one must first understand the denefition of purpose. According to the dictionary, purpose is “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.” Well, if that is the case, then it should be fairly easy to discern what our purpose is, or will it? No, the question is of the purpose of what, us? Is it a question of us as writers, us as biological humans, or us as philosophers? To answer this question, allow me to break it down into little segments.

Firstly, we are biologically humans, and thus, according to instinct, our purpose is to eat, breathe, sleep, drink, reproduce, exercise, and repeat. This is, of course, according to the laws of biology. The only goal in life, according to these laws, is to avoid harm and stay alive until we die. Utilitarianism in its most vulgar form. But everything has its own laws. This may be the answer for biology, for instance, but it could never be the case for philosophy. To make this easier, and to narrow it down, I shall address the three segments of our little definition of purpose.

The previous paragraph does justice for the first part. It answers the question: “why is something done?” We can pursue goals that are not in correlation with the laws of basic survival as long as we maintain that survival. For instance, as long as we eat and drink and sleep regularly, we can perhaps learn to paint, or to drive, or go on an expedition somewhere, and so forth. So in the context of humans, things are done because we prioritize: we do what we need to survive first, and then work out from there. When building a civilization, one would first need a water source, then a food source, then a central structure, then a city, then a military, and on and on and on. The bigger they get, the more they need. Similarly, each individual human, as they grow, will require different things, but the basic essence of survival still lingers. We are done, so to speak, by surviving, and we may pursue other goals from there.

Now for the second part of the definition. Allow me to elaborate on the question: “why is something created?” Specifically, why are we created? Simply put, we evolved. Over millions and millions of years, life forms adapted and changed in accordance with their environment in ways that best suited their survival, and now we have reached the shape and mentality of the common Homosapien. We are probably not done evolving, but as of now, we are as we are. So, because evolution follows the trend that a species evolves in whatever manner benefits survival, that must be the reason for which we were created, survival (anyone else seeing a pattern here?).

But something came before the first life forms roamed the Earth, and those are the elements. All elements are made up of atoms, and all atoms contain electrons. All elements react according to their electron count. All elements become stable when they reach pairs of electrons that add up to eight, and that is why anything reacts at all. We are made up of elements, and we are made up of atoms, and thus, we are made up of electrons. From a scientific perspective, life is nothing more than a tool that electrons use to become stable. As we eat, chemical reactions take place, and so forth. If we died, these reactions could not take place and stability would be that much further from reach for these elements, so thus, it is suitable for the elements that we strive to stay alive. Once again, we come back to survival as our main purpose.

But now we have the last part of the definition of purpose, that of existence. Why does anything exist? But, more importantly, why do we exist? Now, I have explained the natural and scientific reasons for our existence, but what about the philosophical? This is where things become very interesting. As we have seen before, there is no purpose to live other than to simply survive, as almost all other animals do without a second thought. But humans, humans are curious. We pursue things that may not necessarily benefit strictly survival. We have desires, pleasures, and longings that are not required by nearly all other life forms. So why, for what reason, do we exist?

Now things become controversial, because, simply speaking, everyone has their own reason or purpose, in their own eyes. In this case, purpose must mean the meaning of life. There is no single purpose of life that all life forms must adhere to in the philosophical sense (except, of course, simple survival). To believe that life has only one meaning or purpose is, in my opinion, foolish. Everybody alive has different values and no one can dictate what those values should be. I, for example, have mixed views of religion. But what right do I have to judge religion if I am not religious, and what right has a religious person to force their religion upon anyone else? No one has the right to make assertions for others. So, in a simple sense, there is no wider meaning of life, as far as can be discerned. Everyone has their own little meanings.

The way I see it, life has no meaning. All empires fall, all will at some point die and return to dust, everybody will eventually be forgotten, all legacies at some point die, and so on and so forth. For some reason, most people seem to believe that a life without meaning is not one worth living. I say, “who cares?” I feel freer without any purpose to adhere to. I follow my desires, and I try not to hurt others along the way, but ultimately, I couldn’t care less what I or anybody else does with their life. My life is my own, and their lives are their own. But that is only in the grander scheme of life. Objectively, life, according to my nihilistic beliefs, has no meaning, but what about relative to society?

We are still speaking philosophically, of course (so the answer of basic survival is already acknowledged). Relative to society, there are a series of little purposes which we may follow that, though they may not mean anything in the grand sense, do carry a little weight in the small moments in which we live them. Every day I peruse little purposes. I got out of bed this morning, for instance. My next purpose was to brush my teeth, and then wash my face, and then comb my hair, and then eat breakfast…My purpose now is to write an essay that tries to answers the question, “what is our purpose?” There are many that we will pursue throughout our lives. Some are small, and some are larger. Regardless, if you, the reader, believes that any of these purposes mean anything objectively or not, you must admit that one will pursue a lot of purposes over the course of your life. And frankly, that is one of the reasons that life is so interesting.

And lastly, anyone could be right, and anyone could be wrong. I am no exception. I think I am right, but that is because I am me. I could just as easily be wrong about anything. So, in the grand scheme of things, I would just like to say that, no matter what my purpose really is, I am glad to be alive right now. I am glad to have all of you to accompany me on my journey through life. And, as always, may the eyes of fortune forever gaze in your direction. Fare ye well, and cheerio!

#opinion

#philosophy

We all have a purpose, a singluar purpose that only you have. But just becuase ever snowflake is different, doesn’t mean they are not connected. We all have have a job to do, but don’t all of our jobs lead to a better world? Doesn’t every good thing in the world help us grow? I am very young, there is a small chance you would not even believe me if I told you how young, but life has taught me some things. Look, no one is the same. Everyone has something going wrong, and everyone has their own talents, everyone has their own personality and their own thoughts. And, if you put that all together, we get this wolderful thing I like to call the world. I know it’s really easy right now to think that everything is terrible, that nothing is going right, I mean we have Global Warming, a pandemic, World Hunger, I could keep going on. But, where would we be without it? Have you ever imagined a world without boundaries? Boundaries like Global Warming, World Hunger, and this Pandemic. I know I have, and you know what? To be honest with you I would never want to live there. Because those boundaries, those problems, everything going on in our lives, they make us who we are. I guess I’m saying all of this, just to point out, that our world, it can be terrible, but it is our job, to try to fix it, to try to piece back together what we can.

Our world is amazing, it is beautiful, but it is not perfect. It will never be perfect, because we are not perfect, and no matter what we do, mankind will never be perfect, we could never live in a perfect world. Everyone has their own purpose, it could be to move mountains, it could be to help people when they have problems, it could be to make people feel like they should never give up. But that is not the only purpose we have. Humanity has a purpose, maybe that purpose is to fix this world, maybe it is to accept that it will never be perfect. But I know one thing, our purpose, is not to stand around and let this continue. Problems will keep rising, that is what happens when you progress, but you cannot just accept that it’s over, I don’t know about your purpose, I’m not even sure what humanity’s purpose is. But as far as I can tell, mine is to help people, and I will continue doing whatever I can to do that. We all have a purpose, and we all live in this crazy world. No one can say what your purpose is, no one can say what humanity’s purpose is, only you know your own purpose, and if everyone does what is right, maybe someday, we will find out what our purpose has been the whole time.

Anyone who thought a single person couldn’t change the world hadn’t met the Discerner.

The Discerner was tall, with broad shoulders and thick hips, heavy brows and intense eyes. The Discerner’s skin was painted in dark symbols, twisting lines, indistinguishable words. High cheekbones lined with stylized knives, a broad forehead full of eyes, drips and ropes and chains and words spilling down the neck, pooling at the collarbone. Long, dark hair tied up with scarves, braided with fathers and beads, stained with uneven streaks of bleach. Heavy black wings electrifying that already piercing gaze.

The Discerner had looked regular once, with nondescript clothing and downturned eyes, but no one had noticed, and no one remembered. The Discerner had always been this way, now.

A girl with faded hair and skeptical eyes stared up at the house crammed into its spot on Evening Street. Number thirteen. It hadn’t been number thirteen originally, but the number hadn’t been taken and now it was. The bricks were stained and weathered, the buildings on either side edging ever closer, trying to shove the place out without anyone noticing, gradually. Buildings are immensely patient. Number ninety-three and number ninety-seven had never liked number thirteen, but number thirteen was stubborn. It pushed back, gradually, immensely patient.

"Go on, Ava." The girl’s mother put a hand on her thin shoulder, a reassuring squeeze, and let her go with a little push toward the house. "It’s nothing to be afraid of."

Ava looked back at her mother, at the wisps of hair that blew around her face, at her small smile, at her posture that said, go on, it’s easy, it will make everything easy. Ava wondered if she was the only person alive who didn’t want easy.

She turned back to the house, unable to explain her fears to her mother. She frowned up at the dark, dirty windows, filled with gauzy curtains in different dark colours. She would have liked the house, if it didn’t have the Discerner inside it. That made her dislike it more. She huffed and started down the steps, sizing up the door at the bottom, set halfway under the street. As if it wanted to hide itself fully, but couldn’t quite justify it. The paint, discoloured by the sun, was peeling off. She wondered what she would say.

The handle was cold under her fingers, the sun not yet having touched the metal. The door said, skree. Ava looked at it. She went through it and shut it behind her and blinked into the dark hallway.

"This way." The voice was round, very round and deep. It didn’t sound quite human, but Ava thought it also sounded like someone had tried very hard to make it sound that way. She squinted dubiously down the narrow hall to her right, where the voice had come from, until her eyes adjusted. She still couldn’t see much, but she could walk down the hall without crashing into the stacks of curious objects on either side. She glared at them. She liked curious objects. She liked strange, dim houses with narrow, cluttered hallways. And she liked mysterious carved doors that let out heavy incense when she opened them.

She just didn’t like these particular ones.

The Discerner sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, draped in various materials, hung with strange jewelry. The room was huge, the ceiling soaring. Two storeys worth of windows fit inside, dim light filtering through their layers of curtain. Candles flickered everywhere.

"Shut the door behind you, child."

The Discerner stared straight into Ava’s eyes, never blinking. Ava stared stubbornly back, and flicked the door shut. She wondered where the incense was venting out; it would have been much heavier and more cloying if it was confined to this room.

The Discerner’s head tilted to one side, very slightly. "Come closer."

Ava crossed her arms, still staring into those unsettling eyes. Supposedly the Discerner could only see inside a person through touch, but you never knew.

"No." Ava wanted to say more, but she wasn’t sure what, and she was interested to see how the Discerner would take this. Had anyone said no before?

Apparently unfazed, the Discerner’s stare did not waver. "You hesitate to learn your purpose."

The voice was very good, Ava had to admit. Everything about the Discerner made you think you had probably better listen, because you could never be so wise and intelligent as that. Ava didn’t trust it, but it was tempting.

She considered her next words. "I don’t hesitate," she said decidedly. "I refuse." Her own voice was thin and small in the big room, but she was proud of the little stubborn spark in it.

The Discerner replied slowly, syllable by syllable. "I offer you the true purpose of your life, your path forward, your suspicions confirmed, your doubts settled, your mark easily made, and you refuse."

Ava couldn’t read anything of the Discerner’s reaction to this in that voice. Every word was spoken straight, just as it was. A word meaning only that word.

"I don’t want it to be easy." Ava didn’t break the intense gaze between them. "I want to slip and fall and get up and try again. I don’t want to know my purpose, I want to find it."

"You know the risks. You might search forever, and die before you find a thing." It wasn’t a question. Somehow, the Discerner knew she knew. Ava nodded.

"Very well. Leave me. Tell them your purpose is to search. Tell them I told you so, and they won’t question it."

Ava was thrown. She hadn’t expected it to be that easy. She hesitated, then asked, "Really?"

The Discerner blinked slowly, the first blink. The first break of eye contact, and yet, it didn’t feel broken. "You’re one of the easy ones," the Discerner said, the faintest smile tugging at mouth corners. "You know your purpose already. You understand the path of life."

Ava was beginning to feel she had been tricked. "No, I don’t know my purpose!" she said. "That’s the whole point!"

The Discerner smiled for real this time, a grin that split and spilled sunlight. "Exactly."

be here

be present

have fun

smile

laugh

make memories

experience joy,

sorrow,

exhiliration,

anger...

don't overthink.

because maybe our purpose

is to experience life without a true purpose at all

Last night I had a dream, I was with the soul of my role model,

And I found out I have grown so much to be more of him than he actually was,

I was indignant and discombobulated while basking in this dark eidolon,

I've been misled by my own lousy and ignorant self,

I had assassinated the true me while trying to idolize a hoax,

I've spent my life living under the scrutiny of his opinions,

My cause has been put in a comatose and forgotten a long time ago,

Everything I have ever did was based on the philosophy of my idol,

I was so prepared to die for something that was more clearer in the moon light than in the brightness of the sun,

Even if I had everything to live for,

Why do I feel so lost all of a sudden? Who should I look up to,

A man's will is stronger when he follows his heart, but the heart does not lead it follows,

So my message to a Mentee is seeing is believing, but seeing can also be deceiving,

accept and find happiness in whatever you're living for but know and understand what you're ready to die for,

Look with your eyes but see with your heart, talk with your mouth but always speak from your heart,

Wishing you were someone else is a total waste of who you truly are,

Sometimes every special thing we see in others are just reflection of our special ability to see people in such a way like that,

Our will is our only true mentor,

Follow it and you'll be on the right cause.

Work as if you are your own master,

Never needing the whip.

Love like no one else exists,

Taste the sweetness of her lips.

Laugh with a roaring sound,

Enjoying the company you keep.

Speak your mind with vigour and might,

Rest, but don't be overtaken by sleep.

Let your actions do the talking,

Don't let your words just be that.

Allow yourself to feel real anger,

Not masking your intent with idol chitchat.

Don't let fear overtake you,

Especially when it's true.

Don't become the side character in another's life,

See your path all the way through.

Defend honor.

Protect the weak.

Illuminate darkness

with bright word feasts.

Employ language.

Expose abuse.

Vote out dignitaries

who are obtuse.

Pursue virtue.

Lead with aplomb.

Use your endowments

to 'get along'.

Forget fate, forget destiny, decide your own purpose. Don't like your purpose? Change it. What you do is your choice. Noone should be able to decide your purpose without your consent. Someone may decide for you and you may not have a choice in the matter. Doesn't make it right though. My purpose is mine. And your purpose is yours. And if you don't know your purpose yet then that's ok too. Some people can live their whole lives without one and that's just fine too. But in the end your purpose, if you have the choice, is whatever you decide it to be.

Some people come into this world programmed with a purpose while others struggle to find theirs.

Some still have no clue or what their purpose is? In LIFE.

We wake up with routines or none at all. Searching, looking for a purpose.

Some by accident, some stummble on theirs. Others are still in a fog.

We analyze, look for clues, and ask questions.

What am I doing wrong? Is there a lesson I missed. Can someone help me or do I need to do this on my own.

Is it my purpose or do we all have a purpose to do the right thing. To help each other

FIND HIS OR HER own PURPOSE?

When we die? Does our purpose end? Will it be recycled?

Everything just seems to repeat itself as we find our purpose in this life or the next.

So, why are we here at all? Is it on purpose or is it that our purpose never ends.

So, Our minds will alway be focused on our Purpose. In the Here and Now, and in the Future.

So, what is our purpose? To find our purpse in life. That Is The Purpose.

It doesn't matter how long it takes you will find your purpose eventually.

Rinse and Repeat.

Purpose??

So we should’ve have something like that.

But after decades of my life I’m questioning my self,

What’s your purpose buddy?

Why you're like this?

Why am I like this?

Is it because I don’t have ANY PURPOSE.

I already have a purpose,

but..

The purpose someone build for me,

The purpose someone said that is my purpose.

I don’t need a purpose,

I need to be me, just me without any purpose.