Russia has invaded the Ukraine but I am not going to talk about that, whilst I have time I am going to talk about The Meaning of Life. Now I suspect, although it’s a guess, that most of us have contemplated this conundrum at some point. Maybe a time of reflection when reaching middle age, or drunk, or both, but whatever I will say here and now, if you are expecting any fantastic insight into this subject then I will say move on. But I do have reflections, I do have my own periods of reflection and I am no nearer a solution. I am no Plato, no Aristotle I’m just me and this is part of my take on the subject. Why? What? When? How? And many other verbs, nouns, adverbs, pronouns whatever, so where are we at? Well 7 decades have passed me by and I am none the wiser on questions like why am I not a brainbox like, say, Sir Isaac Newton, or why do I not possess the intelligence of, say, Alan Turing?
I failed my 11+, a long ago exam in the UK, that distinguished you for life, supposedly, a test in other words and with the schooling system at the time it was either Grammar School or Secondary Modern. Secondary, as the name suggests, is second class, but for those who attended either school it never quite worked out as planned. I have known people who passed the test and went to the so called better grammar school and ended up in dead end jobs, yet I know of people who attended the same secondary school as myself and ended up millionaires, unfortunately I didn’t. But I went through the motions, enjoying myself whenever monetary and working situations allowed me to, then ‘settled down’. And from there I followed a common path in the UK, marriage, family, children, grandchildren and now, great grandchildren. But do I have any answers to this Meaning of Life?
No, I have yet to figure out, I don’t think that I will, as why some children are more or less crippled from birth, literally. Either physically or mentally by something that went on at birth or the formation of the baby before birth. There are those due to misfortune of some sort, a sporting accident, contacting some disease, or simply by being involved in an accident by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then there are those that by being born to certain parents have a life of luxury and privilege whilst having no redeeming features themselves Luck, that word does play a big part in the Meaning of Life, that I do know and it is random, unequally random. Of course ability helps, like how can some artists paint pictures of such mesmerising beauty when I cannot draw a straight line with a ruler? Then there is the possibility of race and gender to consider, but talent is also feature that not everyone possesses, despite the claim that everyone is good at something.
There again there are successes from obscurity and failures from privilege, this is hurting my head already, are we already close to answer, I fear not. I think that I, long ago, gave up even contemplating such a conundrum, even after hearing many comments on the situation. You make your own luck is a common refrain, never figured that one out either, luck is luck. So as the news is, shall we say, depressing, Russia is now warning dire consequences if anyone tries to stop their invasion of the Ukraine. I will think of my offspring’s, their offspring’s and their offspring’s and fear the worst. As the world recoils from a devastating virus, which, due to intelligent people, we were able to contain, there is nothing to save us from potential warring nations, we have learned nothing from the history of wars.
hullcityengland 