Nothing
Nothing is very boring. How are we to deal with nothing? How are we to deal with boredom?
What if there is no point to life? How are we to deal with the boredom that is created through believing that life yields nothing?
I guess that is where are imaginations come in. Just because things have no true and poignant meaning, there are no substantial reasons for anything, does not mean we cannot create them ourselves. When I first came to terms with the idea that there was absolutely no point to anything, I grew sad, because I did not see any point in being anything else. I took the “easiest” route. However, just because no one can prove that life has a purpose does not mean I can negate the fact that most people on this earth, including myself, still have the animalistic drive to survive.
Some people may say that survival in itself is the reason, is the why. Perhaps for some, but others need a bit more convincing. How can we trust our instinct for survival so blindly? Should we give our other feelings equal credibility?
Personally, I believe not. Although I want to survive, and cannot understand why, I want to exist beyond pure survival. Is that even possible? Well, I like to imagine that pursuing my small goals is a way for me to make a path out of nothing. Life really is nothing until we start sculpting it. Of course, we are impacted greatly by our environment. It is even arguable that none of the choices we make are actually ours because we only do what we believe is best according to what our environment (including the people who surround us) lead us to do. However, even so, there is a kind of satisfaction in knowing that despite the eerie nothingness, we were able to make some semblance of artificial {somethingness}.
Humans may never possess the power to completely fill the void of existence. We have, however, been very successful at finding ways to cover it up. Whether it be through religion or work or hobbies or tradition or storytelling, there are ways to focus solely on fashioning a surface life that allows one to forget the terror of the nothing. In this way, slowly, the nothing may turn into something that is not terrifying at all.
How can we be afraid of something that is not there? And yet, boredom plagues many of us, as we struggle to contextualize everything that we do. Why does it matter that I do any of the things that others prescribe I do, whether it be for school or work or familial obligation?
Honestly, I do not think that they do matter, at least not in the all-important way that some people believe. However, what kind of life would you like to lead? One that agonizes over quite literally nothing? Or one who explores possibility, however painful and frightening it may be, to create a something that is unique to a human species that very well may be already running out of time?
Both options do seem quite tempting. Personally, I am guilty of adopting both views, and so as always,
I truly do not know.
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