This is the longest I have posted my longest in a Facebook Philosophy discussion board topic. I think I should share it here since it took nearly an afternoon to write. It was no chore however, quite a pleasure to write.
'What is worth living for, other than life itself?' We can live for (not in a particular order):
-To feel the sweet breeze after a stifling hot day
-to see rainbows
-watermelons and the juices dripping on your lips and fingers after a long summer walk
-rain after a drought
-cosy fire on a deep winter's night
-seeing the stars on a clear summers sky
-eating toasted marshmallows with friends around a fire
-exciting talk about philosophy when everyone want to talk at the same time.
- my son's dazzling and devastating smile
-the taste of real chocolate after not having one for four years
-the state of clear mountain spring water at the source
-a night of singing, storytelling & dancing while camping
-the taste of freshly caught fish roasted on the wood charcoal fire outdoors.
-my boss telling me, 'Thanks Jo, I wouldn't know what to do if you weren't here'.
-My son telling me, 'I love you very much Mummy in the whole wide, wide world.'
-finding a trashy but gripping, escapist novel -gossiping with by best girlfriend
-rereading Shakespeare's sonnets
-when I cooked a steak and the timing was perfect, no more pinkness showing but still tender & juicy
-watching my favourite tv programs
-crying at a ridiculous romantic movie, book or story
-a special date with hubby at a hotelroom overseas
-talking to a very intelligent and erudite guest at dinner
-taste of port every christmas night -daydreaming about naughty things
-looking at a beautiful face
-talking to a stranger on public transport only to discover you are next
-door neighbours or something.
-penning a 12 stanza poem down in 24 hours
-writing down an astonishingly good essay and get a high distinction for it.
-singing to a full moon and feel your blood calling to it
-seeing a solder flow on metal- its magic
-Drawing the nude
-painting a picture in watercolour and it looks good although you thought it was not when still wet
-discovering a new alcoholic drink or cocktail I never had before
-being taught a new dance by a beautiful dancer with a sweet mellifluous voice
-thinking about life plans
-thinking about the meaning of life and someone makes a good joke to lighten the mood
-when good friends make up after a silly quarrel
-saying silent thanks
-giving a eulogy on a good person's life work and achievements
-be a shoulder to cry on
-wearing something new
-listening to a symphony in a hall with perfect acoustics
-acting in a play put together by amateurs in half hour
-rereading that essay again and again
-family reunions
-going to a new place you've never been before.
-getting lost in a familiar city on a holiday.
-learning something new about your pet subject
-'talking' to pets, grooming and stroking them while they dream
-my cat saving me from a snake coiled under the egg tray in the jungle.
-a butterfly landing on your arm
-your peers acknowledging you as leader and 'forced' to take up a post,embarassingly pressed on you, even though you feel like a fraud.
-see evidence that there really is karma returning sevenhundredfold or some kind of divine justice in real life
-see a light of understanding in a pupil's eyes.
-a letter from a ex-student that she/he idolised you and was an inspiration in their life.
- laughing at a joke with a full belly laugh and see other laugh with you
-getting an honorary doctorate degree from major university in a country where you were born. -helping someone anonymously
-putting a bully in his/her place, contrite and silent
-an unexpected and welcome visitor
-money lent when you really need it at the right time.
- a meal when you were starving for three days in a foreign country
- to speak a language you have not spoken for years
-riding a bicycle a motorbike without a helmet -a compliment from an admirer
-seeing a shy person becoming very confident and assertive -scent of a flower and caressing your cheek with the petals like soft velvet
I could go on and on......but I've the rest of your post to address.
'What difference do humans make in the long run (deep time)?'
Deep time sounds good, the aborigines myths said that their ancestors are creators beings that went to 'sleep' in the deep deep distant past- way back when there was only one protocontinent called Gondwanaland, they form the mountains and the features of the environment around them. It was said the human beings were there to tend to them and to continue with songs and dances needed to keep them happy, lulled by the vibrations so to speak and stay asleep. If they don't have enough people performing their duties regularly at key times of the year, the land breaks apart and it will be the end of the world.
As far as I'm concerned it is a good excuse to party. In fact we have a three week festival at high summer when the weather is perfect, when everyone just go to the park and enjoy live music in Sydney. It's great. I think Aborigines still do their corroborees in the bush. I've never been to one because outsiders are forbidden. Not even the prime ministers or the queen's governoress general is allowed in some of them.
'If the answer is survival of the species, I ask why.'
I don't know why, the survival mechanism/will to live is the strongest human instinct, I suppose. 'If the answer is because of the desires of a divinity, I say prove it.' Personally, I think divinity does exist. Someone said , I forgot, maybe Sartre?, if there wasn't, someone will find invent a divinity anyway that people can understand. Christians believe that their god knows how many hairs they have on their head-an intimate god. To prove it is another thing entirely. I guess we only have our personal experience to go by and the scary stories told in the camp fire. The curse stick pointed at a wrongdoer and they fall down and die or dying people healed after someone said an incantation but its all sounds silly in the age of rationality, but there must be a germ of truth to it all.
'If the answer is to fulfill our destiny.... well, you take it from here.'
I don't know for sure but I think everything is not predetermined obviously, too many random things. Besides we are too close in by bundles of blood and sinew to 'see' everything. It's like asking an ant if his anthill is all there is. Not that the ant is less important than us, everything is interdepedent in this web of life of which as human beings IMHO are a major players. This makes sense to me.
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