Re: The Meaning of Life

Sorry I took so long with this one, babe! It's very hard to answer.

Wow, Lyd. So this was a big question. It took me a while (and a couple drafts) to wrap my head around it and sort out my thoughts. By the time I was done, I felt that my response was really too long to go in the comments section, so I decided to give it a post of it's own.

In Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (although Matt said in his comment that it was a later book... anyway, if I remember correctly, you've never read it, although I think I remember you saying you saw the crappy movie version, which is to the book pretty much what what the Memoirs of a Geisha movie is to that book-- soul-shatteringly awful and disappointing), the answer to the meaning of life is even more simple than according to Monty Python. The meaning of life is *drumroll*... 42.

Which is, of course, at once incredibly simple and completely inexplicable. The meaning of life is a number? What the fuck? I'm not good at math, what does it mean? It could mean flipping anything. But that is, I think, the point. The meaning of life is probably so simple to a higher being like God, or in the book, the rats who are the physical manifestations of higher beings and created the Earth as huge computer/experiment (you really need to read the book), although even the rats don't really understand the meaning of life, so maybe it's not understandable to anyone. Anyway, my point is (if I didn't entirely lose myself on a tangent) that 42, or the real meaning of life whatever it may be, is certainly too much for us humans, with our inferior little monkey brains, to understand.


I was watching another brilliant Monty Python movie the other night, Quest for the Holy Grail, in preparation for my trip to see Spamalot on Thursday. After going home and having a few beers (I am turning into a closet alcoholic), I started thinking more and more about the holy grail itself. I know you read The Da Vinci Code, but I don't know if you've ever been interested in other theories about what the grail might be. I remember seeing a special a while ago on the History Channel (damn, I love that channel, last night I was watching a show about the Queen of Sheba) and one of theories it showcased was that it's not the grail as an actual object (or improper bloodline of Jesus) that matters at all. What matters is the SEARCH. It's like in all those fantasy novels, the quest as a motif is more important than what you find at the end of the quest.

So, what's the meaning of life, according to me? It's that we think about the meaning of life, and these other deep questions, and search for some spiritual significance. Although neither you nor I are big on the organized religion, we're always seeking something, some meaning, some explanation. We're always thinking, always wondering. And that, my dear Lyd, is the meaning of life. That's the way I think we become closer to God, whomever he or she may be. Simply by asking these questions and investigating and searching, we're fulfilling our duties as humans. I don't think there's any higher calling than to be a thinker, and if I thought I could make money off being a philosopher, I would be one.


Does that make any sense at all? If not, all I have to say is, well, take my theories with a grain of salt. This is the same girls who's said the entire meaning of life can be derived from/encompassed in the lyrics of Once More With the Feeling, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode.

That's it for my response to this question, for now at least. Now I need to go post my question for you. *rubs hands evilly* It's another doozie.


answers, meaning of life, Douglas Adams, the holy grail, quests, Buffy the Vampire Slayer