I saw a church sign today

[LMNO]

What gives my life significance?


Beauty.  Truth. 





And extended oral pleasure.

[AFK]

Well, it's here.  I'm in it.  What else am I going to do?  Where else am I going to go?  I was dropped into the cockpit of life and I might as well see where I can take this puppy. 

[LMNO]

Well, it's here.  I'm in it.  What else am I going to do?  Where else am I going to go?  I was dropped into the cockpit of life and I might as well see where I can take this puppy. 

RWHN stars in "Destination: Tot Lot".  Coming this summer!

[Jasper]

What I'm getting is that lots of like-minded people here at some point looked at life, it's boundless mystery et cetera et cetera, and thought "Huh.  That's something."  And decided to live. 

Well, it's here.  I'm in it.  What else am I going to do?  Where else am I going to go?  I was dropped into the cockpit of life and I might as well see where I can take this puppy. 

For some people, it's Top Gun.  For others, it's Tokyo Drift.

[LMNO]

For others, it's Tokyo Drift.

[AFK]

Some days it feels like Stealth Bomber: The Early Years. 

[BADGE OF HONOR]

I am a beautiful butterfly...just like everyone else.

No really though, it's something I just don't need to think about.  I think spending so long wanting to die has changed my views on what life should be.  I'm happy just to be happy, and to be able to do whatever I want, and to be able to have simple human interaction.  I can't even think of any long-term goals.  So my significance probably isn't very large to the world in general, but it's important to me.

[NotPublished]

I am a beautiful butterfly...just like everyone else.

No really though, it's something I just don't need to think about.  I think spending so long wanting to die has changed my views on what life should be.  I'm happy just to be happy, and to be able to do whatever I want, and to be able to have simple human interaction.  I can't even think of any long-term goals.  So my significance probably isn't very large to the world in general, but it's important to me.

Beautifully put!

[BADGE OF HONOR]

I also have the luxury of a job that involves minimal bullshit for livable money, and no real responsibility besides taking care of my cats.  I generally feel very serene.   

[Nephew Twiddleton]

on the way to work, yeah.  You know the ones.  They have cinema boards with movable letters, arranged to try and needle you with cute little platitudes as you drive by.  Today's precious gem was "What gives you significance?"

I know what they meant by it.  They meant that, without their god, my existence is warrantless and ignoble.  

But aside from that guilt ridden subtext, it's a cool question, isn't it?  What gives you significance?

I have my answers.  They fluctuate.  Sigmatic is my chosen pseudonym here because of several connotations, ranging from fictional characters to latin root words.  My identity as part of, and separate from, my direct control is of great significance to myself and possibly very significant to the world at large.  My life is significant, furthermore, because I find that (epistemologically speaking) the ideas and experiences life offers are of such magnificence and complexity and wonder that their sum could hardly be trivial in any sense.  

So I have to ask.  What gives you significance?

The desire to be a professional and recognized bum musician.
Seriously that's what I feel the essence of my being is. Making sounds.

[edit: LMNO has a point. Oral pleasure is pretty awesome too]

[Cramulus]

Significance to whom?

When You and I behind the Veil are past,
Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last,
Which of our Coming and Departure heeds
As the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast.

We are no other than a moving row
Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go
Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held
In Midnight by the Master of the Show;


But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays
Upon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days;
Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

significance shmignificance.

In A Beginner's Guide to Immortality, Cliff Pickover presents the new york times best seller list from 50 years ago. And today, you wouldn't recognize a single title on the list. His point is that most of us will leave no mark on history. Your legacy will be carried for a few generations at most, and then your entire existence will simply fade into the mists of time.

If this thought disturbs you, you're holding on.

[Salty]

J. Krishnamurti went to great lengths to impress this on his listeners.

And it's worth considering:
In the grand scheme of things our lives are awfully petty. Our heartaches and tragedies, our triumphs and accomplishments, our ego, our pride; these things mean little to those not actively involved in, or otherwise compelled to give a damn about, our lives.

And that's only while we're given ANY prolonged attention that we've collectively deemed inherently due to the living. Once we're dead...even our remembrances fade. After enough centuries have passed even our headstones, IF we have any, will be worn down, eventually they'll just be gone to dust. I chuckle every time I see an "In Loving Memory" decal on the back of a car window; mostly they fade well before the memory should be able to.

All this leads directly to a whole load of existential crisis and musings.

However, while I will be totally forgotten about in perhaps 100 years, and most definitely after 1000 years, that doesn't mean I will neglect the things that give ME significance RIGHT NOW. In fact, those things seem to be even more important because they're the things I can add to this world while being able to witness the effect.

I said that my words give me significance, and I suggested that may be a stupid thing to count on. That's because words wear so very thin, are easily forgotten, and even more easily ignored.

Do they fill me with purpose? Some end goal that I have dutifully contributed to? No. That's pathetic and laughable. Again, Rick Warren. He capitalizes on that significantly, fueling people's thirst for purpose, for a sense that their actions have inherent meaning.

I don't need that. I do need my words, and the people they affect. And I don't have any good reason for why that's so. And I'm just fine with that.

[Jasper]

I still don't buy it though. 

What if significance isn't a matter of metaphysical worth, or even historic or emotional value?

I think significance is in everyone's lives.  If you've read the Dark Tower, I think of significance in this context as a lot like Ka:  A nebulous concept encompassing one's present conditions, the meaning behind things in life, the people you're with, the direction events are proceeding in, and the perceived reasons for various occurrences.

[Dimocritus]

What gives my life significance?


Beauty.  Truth. 





And extended oral pleasure.

I couldn't have said it any better myself (I know, I tried).

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

TITCM LMNO!