Existential Dilemmas: Why Are We Here?

I have two friends w/questions about their purpose in life rattling around in their heads. Maybe more.

And I say, "we're here to make the world a better place."

It's about that simple, in my opinion. Well, let me not give in to my cowardice. I'll add a little extra stinger: "...under the direction of the Supreme Being that started this whole 'universe' thing running in the first place."

How can I possibly imagine I can get away w/saying something like that and not be considered a religious-right conservative?

(And, I'm probably misusing the word "dilemma", which is supposed to mean a person is torn between two choices. What two choices, in this case? Is "quandry" a better word?)

Well, if we're just here on our own, what's the point? To have fun, right? To live a pleasant life before we wink out. How do we define pleasure? (10,000 Philosophy majors are now waiting for me to fall on my face.)

• Getting drunk, having sex, eating good food. Simple.
  
  
• Making other people happy. We get that vicarious glow from giving people Christmas holiday presents, teaching them to read, curing them of their heroin addictions.
  
  
• Leaving something behind us when we die. A well-adjusted child. A bridge. A university endowment. A law with our name on it. A cured, grateful heroin addict.
  
  
• True Love, which is probably All of the Above.
  

At some point, these things start to pale, I think. You've eaten at all the nice restaurants in town. Even the good ones in some other city serve... food. Grains, vegetables, sugary syrups, funky spices, cheesy sauces, cows, fish, alligators.

You no longer derive satisfaction from teaching people to read. Or maybe, you don't have the energy after spending all day dealing w/consumers at the retail level, or your myopic boss who doesn't see the long-term implications of his request(s).

Your child has told you in no uncertain terms that s/he wants absolutely no part of your antiquated values system (what value system is that?).

Your dream of building a gleaming chrome-plated bridge across the bay just got shot down for the last time, and now you know it'll never happen because it took 12 years to get to this point and you just don't have it in you for another 12-year try.

Your true love just walked out the door.

There's nothing inside you; it's all relative and the point of reference has disappeared.

Your point of reference has to be outside of yourself. Your obligation must be to something not relative to yourself.

There is a Prime Mover. (I have an elegant proof for that assertion, but this blog page is too small for it.) We have a calling. That isn't changed by any difficulties you find yourself going through. It's as simple as that.

You can have difficulties meeting your calling, and be forgiven for that, but the calling remains.

(And, just to avoid being hypocritical: I haven't stepped up and really fulfilled my calling yet, either. I'm hoping I'm going to get a few more years before that final Exit Interview, but there's no telling, really.)

Comments? (I think I do better in dialog than monologue.)