I had a conversation with a man on Friday night. We stood at the
fridge clutching beers. I stood side on to him so that I could hold my ear
close to his mouth. The music was loud, the talking was loud.
He was talking about chance. He told me stories about moments
where people he had not spoken to in months or years, he thought about randomly,
and who then contacted him that day.
‘I’m like that’, he said. I think outside the box a lot. ‘What’s
it called again? Those conspiracy theories? About planes and chemicals....Do
you know what I am talking about?’
Yes I do.
I did not mention to him that someone had mentioned that to
me, a few hours ago, it was the first I had heard of it. And here I was talking
to him about it again. For the first time, twice in one day. That would have
corroborated his argument. But I wanted him to substantiate it himself.
‘There’s more going on than what we see’, he says.
We talked about solipsism. And birds eye views.
He had an interesting tone. As if these stories of chance,
proved that there was no point to the world. Somehow.
I responded with my usual quasi-socratic,
quasi-existentialist ideas...
Does asking questions about the meaning of life, the purpose
of life.... how can that alone convince you that life has no purpose?
Cant your own individual purpose of life be to ask these
questions. To examine life.
Can that be your ‘eudaimonia’, your ultimate design and end of flourishing: A worthy
life of examination.
Cant you be whole in your seeking of answers. Cant that process of seeking itself be what fills you with purpose?
And if there is no purpose of life, no collective order
running through all things, that can be a premise, that gives you freedom to
create your own purpose.
He did not seem to have much patience to consider my
questions. I think that he decided my questions meant that I did not understand
what he was saying. ‘no, let me explain to you again’ he said ‘this one time
someone i had not spoken to in years, i thought about randomly and they
contacted me that same day’. Yes I understand, I said, don’t fret sir. I just
want you to think more about what you are saying. If you believe something like
this, and then draw conclusions from that belief that mean that life has no
purpose... ask questions. Substantiate it. Be able to have a discussion with me
about it and answer my questions. Questions don’t invalidate your argument,
they just fill in the colours.
I asked him if this ‘something more’ that was going on,
which was evidenced by these moments of random chance, if he believed they were
caused by something internal or external to us. If it comes from us, was
through our volition, the fact that he had thought about someone caused them to
then contact him. Or if it was the world responding to his thought. Or if it
was all the way the world moves around us. This idea of ‘fate’ that we cannot
control, presenting itself to us.
It was an odd conversation, but it is something I have been thinking about. It is in the back of my mind, these grand questions of fate. of how we interact with the world around us. what dynamic forces or interaction exists between people and the physical and metaphysical world around us.
