PURPOSE

Asking people about their passion is one thing. Asking them about their purpose is another. The first presupposes ‘now’, the latter an illusion. While the purpose in life has always been physical – 'be fertile,' they all say, of the earth and women – passion is of another dimension. We can passionately declare that the purpose in life is to do the best we can right now. Try not to kill anybody, be too angry with idiots, leave grand legacies to your kids, or think that just because things happen to you they are significant. If we all relaxed about our purpose in life, we might discover that we can be at peace with each other and with this planet we’re on.

Enjoy your passions. (Parenthetically speaking, I must say that I prefer passion to purpose, as I have this nagging suspicion that a lot of what we call 'purpose' has more to do with our concern with what others think of us, or even worse, our anxiety that we might not live up to the neighbours' expectations, than with our knowledge of what we're really good at. But let that be the topic of another fragment. Right now, I'm not sure I want to waste my time commenting on self-delusions.)



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