A Meaningful Life
It’s time for me to get up.
My left foot hits the floor and I wince as the pain moves across the bottom of my foot and up into my ankle. I relive the experience as my right foot hits, and I hobble down the stairs to get my coffee. By the time I get my coffee and go back up the stairs, like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz after his oil can treatment, things are moving and the pain is less.
Growing older, it takes some patience.
Today is my birthday.
I turn sixty two today.
And with the exception of the slow starts in the morning, and realizing I can’t do everything the way I used to, I feel pretty good.
I don’t feel like an old guy.
My financial advisor Mike called me yesterday to wish me a happy birthday and to remind me I was now eligible for social security.
I also got a couple of those cell phone sales calls; one was about a Medicare supplemental insurance; and the other went something like this:
“Hello my name is Joe and I am a Medical Alert Systems Emergency Specialist on a recorded line. Our records indicate you are part of an age group that are prone to falls, injuries, and health issues…”
I guess I now fit the demographic.
For my birthday this evening my wife took me out and bought me a new bicycle. Since we are running less we have started to cycle more for exercise. The bad thing about being sixty two and cycling is that I look pretty funny in bike pants.
The good thing about being 62 and looking funny in my bike pants is that I just don’t care.
I read an article yesterday that said there are many people who feel their lives are meaningless, they spend their whole lives searching for a purpose. But, according to Thaddeus Metz writing in the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy, the author says of those who do feel that meaning in their lives can be identified, they fall into one of four groups:
- Those that are god-centered (not with a capital G) and believe only a deity can provide purpose.
- Those that have the soul-centered view and think that something of us must continue beyond our lives, a spiritual after physical existence.
- Then there are the “objectivists” who say there are absolute truths that have value and offer meaning, like creativity or living a moral life.
- Finally there are the “subjectivists” who consider making an intellectual discovery, raising children with love, playing music, and developing superior athletic ability is what gives life meaning.
I don’t know about all that.
I think Mr. Metz has this meaningful life thing a little confused.
Because I believe the things that make life meaningful are all the above.
I may not be a philosopher or as smart as Mr. Metz, but I think believing in God with a capital G; believing there is a life everlasting; having creativity and living a moral life; raising my children and grandchildren with love; playing music; and developing superior athletic abilities on my new bicycle may be helping me have a meaningful life.
I guess that makes me a God-centered, soul-centered, objective subjectivist with a new bicycle who looks ridiculous in bike pants.
My recommendation for Mr. Metz is that he go find Jesus, pick up a Bible and read John 3:16; get himself a back yard with a koi pond, a deck, and some banana trees; marry someone like my wife and have some kids and grandkids; pick up a guitar or harmonica; and buy himself a bicycle.
Yup that’s what I think.
Today is a happy birthday.
