endev42 - documenting the meaning of life

A group of religious teachers and philosophers had spent twenty years debating a single question — what is the meaning of life? Finally, they heard that a holy man who'd spent a lifetime meditating naked atop a Himalayan peak had found the answer. They decided to consult him. So, they journeyed to Katmandu and spent three weeks making the hazardous ascent to the mountain top, where they found the holy man wearing nothing but his beard and beads, sitting cross-legged in the snow. The asked the sage their question. “Sir, we have debated for twenty years and still cannot find an answer to this question: what is the meaning of life?”

He mediated for a long time. The sun set. The moon rose and set again. And finally, as the dawning sun tinted the mountain peaks rose-red, he uttered these four words:

“Life is a fish.”

They thanked him profoundly and journeyed back home, where they spent the next two years debating the meaning of this answer. Finally, unable to come to any clear conclusion, they journeyed all the way back to Katmandu and up the mountain, where they again encountered the holy man sitting naked in the snow.

“Sir” they said “we have debated these two long years and we still can’t understand... how can life be a fish??”

The guru nodded, thought a while, then shrugged.

“Alright. So it’s not a fish”.

Like all good Jewish jokes, this one uses bathos as a teaching tool. I believe that the universe is a place that obeys the fundamental laws of physics but is without purpose or meaning... other than (and this is the important part) that with which we imbue it.

Our purpose in this unfathomably vast and confounding cosmos is to find meaning. - our own meaning - and to live by that meaning. You should understand that your meaning may not be mine - or anyone else’s for that matter. And please, please don’t try to thrust your meaning on me. Religions do that — and look at all the problems they’ve caused.

So, if life is a fish for you — good luck to you, my friend.

I’m 76 and still looking.

But that’s what gives my life purpose and meaning.

Jon Amiel

Los Angeles March “25