I have always had a bad habit of blurting out, "It's such a hassle”. There are mornings when I greet the day with a groan of "Oh, what a hassle", and I often go to bed thinking, "What a hassle!".
Life is basically a hassle, isn't it?
Work, study, socializing. But if I didn't have to work to make a living, what would I do? I think about it. It's also a hassle to kill time until I die :)
What do people live for?
One of my favorite John Lennon songs since I was a teenager was "It's so hard," which encouraged me many times. Because even that John Lennon blurted out, "It's so hard". And if he wrote a song about it, he must have had some kind of message. To be precise, this is not a song of encouragement, but a song of sympathy. It's a rock 'n' roll, "what a hassle!" song, and I love it.
Since the song is about people's daily activities, such as "you got to eat," "you got to drink," and "you got to feel something," I think that "hard" in "It's so hard" could be translated as "troublesome (something hard)" rather than "difficult".
And just like John Lennon sang, sometimes I feel like going down. And then I think...
Huh, what is it that I live for?
Do you think there is an answer to this?
Not because I am a science major, but I am relatively pragmatic and try to think of things in terms of principles as much as possible. This kind of person would probably seem a bit cold to someone who values emotions.
What I do when I am struggling with something like that is, what did I do when I was a human being when I was a monkey? I try to go back to the animal level. For a simple example, why do I have to work? What would you do if you were an ape? Then, you might ask yourself, "Would I be self-sufficient like a caveman now?" If you are not prepared to do that, then you might as well stay in the current system.
Do you need family? Need friends? Do you need money? It may seem like an eternal question, but if we return to animals and think about it, it becomes a little clearer what principles we live by, and I think we can see the unnecessary things we are forcing ourselves to do in the modern world.
Now, if we take that further, "What do people live for?" What would the answer be? In order to think about it, we need to first think scientifically about "why life came into being.
If we venture to think in terms of the origin of the earth, it generally goes like this.
- A meteorite impact accidentally created the Earth, a planet where water can exist.
- A large amount of water became an ocean.
- In the ocean, carbon C, nitrogen N, hydrogen H, and light reacted chemically to form amino acids.
- This amino acid was the raw material for the origin of life.
- After many twists and turns, we have come to the present.
Then the question, "Why were we born?" The answer to "It just happened," probably because a meteorite hit us 4.6 billion years ago in a nice environment. Our origin is here. Isn't that a little funny?
Miraculously, the meteorite mass was transformed into a planet where life could exist at 1 atmospheric pressure, 15 degrees Celsius, and 21% oxygen.
So, there is no answer to the question, "What are we living for?". After that, an ancient life form formed by chance 3.5 billion years ago. It became a human being. That's all. And what is even more absurd is that each and every one of those life forms was not born by raising a hand and saying, "I want to be born!".
Then the question becomes, "What are we living for?" You are of course free to think about it, but if it stresses you out, it's a waste of time. There is no answer to that question, and to think that the impact of a meteorite 4.6 billion years ago was inevitable is a bit too imaginative.
So, among those who are born by chance, there will be some who are brilliant, and others who will live their lives toiling around, blabbing about how "annoying". (That's me!)
That's just the nature of it.
I'm one of many people.
It's like the saying goes, "Color is emptiness".
Well, it's troublesome, but sometimes it's fun.
It's really good.
Summary (personal opinion)
Q. What do people live for?
A. No particular meaning.
Q. Why were we born?
A. Because 4.6 billion years ago, a meteorite hit us in a good way.
There is no particular meaning, so let's take it easy and live.