Have you ever sat back and thought to yourself... ?

Yes…I think about that all the time. Like what am I actually doing, has anything I’ve done really impacted anything. No, not really. Look up existentialism. It kind of goes along with your question.

My mother always hammered in into my head, especially when I was upset about something. “In 100 years, no one will even know your name!”

@YARNLADY That seems like a horrible way to cheer someone up.

I am convinced that I serve no purpose other than whatever role I play in society’s maintenance functions, in this case, an ambulant bank machine, probably just like most people, whether I waste all my money on beer or all the debts I’ll owe once I’m done school.
If I kill myself, someone is forcibly going to have to pay all that which I’ll owe, even the government will if I get some cheap funded funeral where I’m unceremoniously dumped into a pine box while people hired to act as mourners pretend to cry.

It really doesn’t bother me that much though, because I find purposes for myself, no matter how delusional they are. I bet the only reason I’m able to have delusions is to go on paying for shit.

@tedd GQ. From a cosmic standpoint,or even from a perspective of near history, there are relatively few people or events in the course of human history that can be defined as “pivotal”. If you have access to Netflixgo and take a look at some historical shows about any era atal. you will see in the tellin that te focal points are aroundindividuals who did or saidsomething crucial.
Oskar Schindler springs to mind. As a person he was knd of shitty. He cheated on hs wife, he failed at every enteprise to which he put his hand, until the war. He prospered by using the labor of subjugated people but he ended up saving he lives of, what, eleven hundrd some people. Not really an earthshaki event but extremely significant for a human standpoint.
One can almost imagne a great board on which we are placed and most of us are just counters, but a few have actual features and are allowed “special” moves not given to most of the pieces.
But who moves the pieces? How many are playing the game?

Nah. In the past few years I’ve realized that we, as human animals, are defined primarily by the relationships we have, and my relationships are pretty damn good and always getting better. I’ve managed to meet a lot of great people, and set into motion some good things.

I may have thought about that sort of thing but I sure as hell don’t wallow in it. That’s psychological quicksand and once you allow yourself to sink into it, it can be very difficult to extricate yourself from. No thanks.

Ah, good old existential angst. I think most people who are at all introspective go through this from time to time, usually when we’re younger. It can be pretty devastating the first time around, too. The trick is to focus on what you can do, like pay attention to your relationships, be kind to strangers, be a good human being. You never know how much you might affect the world just by doing those things!

It is that old “what is the meaning of life” question disguised with different words. And the older I get, the more I avoid it and just stay in the moment. This moment right now is pretty damned good and so was the one that came before it. That is enough. I learned this lesson from watching my old dog, he stumbles, gets up and just keeps on going.

yep, I’m with Roo on this one…just stay in the moment and take one day at time. Too much trouble to figure it out. A waste of energy!

I am in agreement with @rooeytoo and @BoBo1946.
Life is for living… each and every day… so enjoy it :))

No. My ego is waaay to big to entertain non-me thoughts such as those.

There is no one true ‘purpose’ for anyone.
Purpose changes as does everything else.

Right…life is enough all by itself, appriciate your aliveness and remember, my fav. mantra that keeps things in a healthy perspective

You don’t HAVE a life, you ARE life!

Make like the little birdies, just in-joy and don’t over think too much. ;-)

No. I usually think the opposite. I may not have accomplished anything great on the world’s stage, but the small accomplishments that I have made will always matter to those I love and if only they remember me, well that’s certainly good enough. My ex-husband to this day wishes he had made it as a rock star guitarist. In wasting all his time moaning and self pitying over that, he ignores his children and makes them feel unimportant. He fails to realize that his children are the ones who are going to remember him and they don’t care that he wasn’t a rock star. What they will remember is that he was a self obsessed wanna be and consequently, a lousy dad and that’s a shame.

What’s the old quote? “To the world you may only be one person, but to one person you may be the world?”

Yeah… but I’m working on it.

That’s the story of my last 5 years but in a strange way, it’s brought me calm.

Not usually. I really have accomplished a lot.