My Favorite Book

It's been a long day.  Those long days seem to be coming around more and more often lately.  I guess that is just what happens as you get older.  Not that I'm old yet, but still.  

The work that I am supposed to do so I'll maintain my GPA, the work that I should do to build my portfolio, the work that I will go to at 8 am tomorrow morning.... It all weighs on me.  It barrages me with a quickly growing list of people to call or e-mail, things to remember, things to read and things to research.  The list grows until I suddenly try to fight back.  I race through the readings, spend time with people and even make a few calls.  It is only a minor dent in the list, but a dent never looked so good.

So, I escape for a few moments.  I watch House with a friend then, after we've parted, I walk back to my room and pull a book off the shelf.  It is an old paperback that I got way back in middle school.  Its spine shows several clear white lines from where the book has been opened so many times.  This is my favorite book.

I turn to a page right in the middle.  I know this story forwards and backwards.  The page takes me straight to a conversation between the characters and the ref before a game:

"Are the edges on that thing sharp?" the spokesman asked, spying the general's axe.

"Razor," Badaxe replied haughtily.

"But he won't use it on anyone," I added hastily, suddenly remembering the "no edged weapons" rule.[...]

"Oh, I have no worries on that score," Greybeard responded easily. "As with all games, the crossbowmen will be quick to eliminate any player who chooses to ignore the rules."

I skim pages and read over the place where the "hero" accidentally becomes the teacher of an unlikely student then over to a conversation between that same "hero," a dragon, an exceptionally large woman and a scaly green guy. 

What gets me is the comedy of the book.  It makes me smile to read about all the unlikely situations that sound strangely similar to some situations where I have found myself, only minus the scales and the axes, in the not too distant past.  

I consider actually re-reading it for the hundredth time, but then I spot my to do list.  So much to do, so little time.  Maybe I'll read just a few chapters.  I practically have it memorized anyway.

The Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of life?  

Scholars have asked this question since as far back as man can remember, yet no one seems to know the answer.  It seems to be a simple question.  After all, it basically asks why are we here?  There has to be a reason.  Everything has some sort of reason, even if the reasons behind some things are stupid or confused in purpose or ineffective.  There is still a reason.

So, why are we here? On this planet.  In these specific geographic locals where we find ourselves.  Among these people with whom we interact on a daily basis.  What is the purpose of our being here?

There does not seem to be an easy answer in sight, so I find the answer the same way many modern people seek to have their queries answered:  I google it.  The answers display an interesting variety of opinions and philosophies.

The answers are:

• Monty Python
• 42
• God 
  
• Oneness
• Nothingness
• Life
• Love
• It is meaningless 
• 42 (about 70 more times)

There were a few others but that is the basic jest of it.  So, this leaves me back where I started, only with a little more information this time.  Why are we here?  What am I supposed to believe?  How will the meaning of life, affect my life?  But this is a big question, and I should have known better then to expect a simple answer from a big question.  Big questions give you more questions.  That is as simple as it is going to get.  

A few sites were of some help though, in this quest for truth.  First, a philosophical approach then, surprisingly, a pop culture character worked to give insight.

http://www.themeaningoflife.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb3GZ5DfaTY

Ultimately, I don't think I was really looking for an answer anyway, so much as wondering if there was one.  I like to ask questions.  I want to know what is there to be known, even if I can't know it all.  Maybe that is the meaning of life: Asking.