When I started to think of it and then thought of writing on it I myself got really confused so I might lose the way while writing this.
We are all living this life with a purpose we have chosen ourselves. If you ask a millennial about his purpose of life then he might say money and some might add fame to it. It is absolutely a justified answer as for them life seems to rotate around those two ideas –how to be rich and famous. And then there are us the post millennial age group who try to find something else from life.
What would be a happy life and what would be a meaningful life? Are the interconnected? Happy as per dictionary is broadly defined as giving/showing/causing/feeling pleasure. Happiness is quite easy to experience as it is too common a feeling. We feel happy when we buy a thing which we wanted, when we see our children doing well in studies or job or business, when we get a promotion at work and a pay raise, when we a tasty food or drink, when we travel for leisure and so on and so forth. Happiness comes easily and therefore goes easily also if the opposite things happen with us.
A meaningful life is a little more complicated. It has to do with reciprocity, a coexistence with a common purpose. When we raise our children we say that it is our duty to raise our children properly – though our children a source of our happiness but it also gives meaning to life as a duty to raise him properly. If it was not so then we would have been happy to have sex and a baby and then leave it to grow up without our intervention. Meaning comes from the feeling of interconnectedness and knowing that we are interdependent in this journey of life through thick and thin.
The opposite is also true as a life of recluse can cause a feeling of meaninglessness in life, at least outwardly. And so is the feeling if there is no defined purpose in life which goes beyond being rich and famous. People who are working for causes greater than self have a feeling of a meaningful life. People working on climate change, forestation, poverty alleviation and other forms of activity tend to feel that they are doing a meaningful thing which is beyond happiness. We generally think that doctors’, nurses, teachers or someone volunteering for doing something good are in a noble profession because they are doing something good for the society. The more connected we are with others the more we feel meaningful.
But the crux is that in this digital world human connectedness is important to have a meaningful life. A tiktok or instagram user with millions of followers may be happy but it is not meaningful. Happiness may came from both living things and non leaving things but a meaningful life will always consist of people whom we trust understand and care for with a reciprocal feeling.
Now there is no harm if someone chooses to live a happy life, in fact most of us fall under this category. Our meaningfulness is limited to only a small circle and without any higher purpose. That is ok as this also gives the satisfaction we need. A meaningful life always includes a happy life but a happy life may not also consist of a meaningful life - not a universal law bit a generalized one because it overlaps each other somewhere.
Though I have not done anything which constitutes to be a higher purpose but in my limited sense I have lived a meaningful life within my limited circle. What about you?
Thank you Telesfor sir.