More Cake

"I read your blog post... So if there is no purpose to life...do we get to eat more cake?"
- Caprice, in an in-message to me on She Chooses, quoted with permission

"...kids, be free, be whatever you are, do whatever you want to do, just so long as you don't hurt anybody."
- Tourist Lady, Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

I continue to struggle with the inevitable questions about the meaning of life after seeing loved ones die.  Have "a higher purpose than self," "Make the world a better place, "Save the world," "Do good."  Ohh, I just feel so tired...

When I read the message from Caprice, a big fill-in-the-blank came to me:

If life had no purpose, I would ____________.

If life had no purpose, I would:

• Waste (radical!) the little dried bits in the Lipton French Onion Soup packet by sifting them out, add the hard-onion-bit-free powder to sour cream, and savor that delicious dip with Lay's potato chips.
• Do another sprint triathlon.
• Hire the Hooptie Ride to take me to five sprint triathlons within a four-hour drive so I can qualify for placement in the Virginia Triathlon Series with a big, fat 54 inked on my calf (although I will only be 53; I am not a fan of age-up rules).
• Hire the Hooptie Ride to drive me around a lot.
• Get another cat.
• Without having opened their lids or gone piece-by-piece through their contents to remember and feel and think, hire someone to come to my house and haul the boxes and boxes of the meticulously selected, organized, archived paper record of my life to the recycling dump.
• Host salons and gatherings and talks and symposia and summits, something cool every week!
• Get a part-time gig as a group therapist.
• Hire the Hooptie Ride to drive me to see the people instead of sending them email.
• Hire the Hooptie Ride to pick up me and my friends for lunch at Our Daily Bread.
• Start a "$50K at 50 Foundation" and give $50K to people who start companies at 50 years old.
• Still think that attempting to answer "What's it all about, Alfie?" gives my life its deepest meaning.

Today, I am 53 years old.  That's a good list.

I always have to gather my strength to go to this video on YouTube to copy its embed code.  But a good list needs a good cat.  She was a very, very good cat.

Comments

[Cort the Sport]

Well, life does have great purpose and you can still probably do most of what is on your list!! Getting to five VTS races is easy, even without the Hooptie ride, just hitch a ride with me!!

[Anne Giles Clelland]

Thank you so much, Cortney! I would love to ride with you! And then I can watch you off in the distance as we compete! :)

You rock.

[Therese Tappouni]

Anne, you rock. It's true that looking for purpose keeps you focused, but unfocusing sometimes brings the purpose. (not a Zen Koan, by the way:) I will be 70 in January---yikes--so your birthday sounds like a gift of many more years of loving and searching. Happy 2012 AND Happy Birthday dear friend, Terry

[Anne Giles Clelland]

YOU rock, Terry, and thank you so much for leaving me a birthday comment. When I hear from you that unfocusing might be of value, I am open to it. Thank you for loving and searching with me - over many years, in many places.