text: Stan, The answer I give below is actually one that I gave to an earlier questioner who asked, "What is the meaning of life."\n\nI re-post it here, because I think the substance of it pertains to your very valid question. (In particular, the last two paragraphs).\n\nHope it helps.\n\n=============================================\n\nCertain questions are wrong -- like asking, "do you still beat your wife?" If you've never beaten your wife there's no correct way to answer it. If you answer "yes" it implies that you once DID beat your wife, and if you answer "no" it implies that you're still doing it.\nSuch is the case with this perennial question. It keeps coming up, and people think there's an objective answer -- like a solution to a mathematical equation, or a cure to a disease. People keep expecting someone, somewhere to come up with the magic answer, and suddenly we're all going to slap our foreheads and say, "WOW! So THAT'S it!!! Thanks." \n\nUnfortunately, life is not an objective enterprise. It is a subjective enterprise. We may do science objectively, but Nobody (I repeat -- NOBODY) lives life "objectively." We all live it subjectively. And if that is the case, the question "what is the meaning of life" is nonsensical. You're asking for an objective answer to a subjective problem.\n\nTherefore, you have to approach the problem subjectively. The proper question isn't "what is the meaning of life" (in objective terms), but "What is the meaning of MY life" -- asked in subjective terms.\n\nAnd what is the meaning of YOUR life? Only YOU can answer that. That is the existential choice. It's all on you -- and nobody but you. It's the question each one of us must ultimately confront. You can be reactive and let others choose for you; or you can be proactive, seize the day, and define your own existence. It's up to you.