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A friend of mine is having a crisis of faith. He's got a simple question. What's the point of all of this?
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He asked someone at work today, and I heard, and I offered my ear to his pain. I couldn't help it. I asked the same question 3 years ago, and came up with an answer I could live with.
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He wants there to be some purpose behind it all, some master plan, some reason for doing, and being.
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That's not a question most people ask in the middle of the day. I asked him in return “Does there have to be a purpose behind it? Isn't it enough to simply be, to exist? You are the center of your universe, the focal point of all your perceptions and all your memories. While you live you stand in the center of it all, and it all radiates outward from you. Can't you just be happy to BE?”
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He can't. He doesn't seem to have a faith to hang on to, so the questions he's asking are difficult in the extreme. Faith provides you with a second chance, a “next time around”, an “after the mortal coil”. Abandoning faith leaves you alone, facing a clock that is inexoriably winding down. If your life is not for your children, and if your life is not for the future, and if your life is once, and once only, it's hard to find a reason to live it.
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I hope he finds his own answer to this. I doubt mine will suit him. He needs a reason, something to balance the equation and make it all make sense.
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3 years ago I was at the same question. I found my answer and abandoned my faith. I found the path that leads to my future, and I can accept it. Even now with his question pounding in my ears I know my answer still fits.
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I want little things.
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And there's still time.
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