True Meaning of Life

Of late, people around me keep talking a lot about the true meaning of life - finding one's destiny and such 'highly thought provoking' topics. How one guy went into Alaska for the same and died without anybody knowing. How another guy trekked up Everest and survived - but was paralyzed or something. How it will be 'cool' to just get away and do something crazy like that.

One parallel I see from all this talk is the need for everybody to get away from their laptops and phones and go to a place where nobody can reach them [read: bother them]. That is an expected line of thought for people in the software industry. But that shouldn't drive people insane.

There is more to life than shooting to fame just because you were dumb enough to go rock climbing in the canyon and get almost killed after 5 days. But these guys paint the illusion of freedom as the one-stop shirking of all responsibilities. And that is very alluring to everybody who never had to be responsible and are suddenly thrust with a cartload of to-dos. Some people become a Ray Barone and the others do crazy stuff.

Everybody has a long list of want-to-dos and another separate list of have-to-dos. I believe the key to being happy is aligning the 2 lists. Most people are burdened and irritated because they feel they are doing something that is totally unnecessary. It's like wanting to play the World Cup finals because it is too irritating to go through the qualifiers just because you think you are Spain - The belief that you are better than everybody else and don't need to meddle yourself with ordinary affairs.

There is no single leap that takes a person from where he is to a much better place. Opportunities do come knocking but if you are in the empire state building - you have to get yourself to the right door. And seizing that door doesn't mean you let go of what you have. People forget that life is mostly a balancing act. Sometimes you get toppled over - and it gets very difficult to get back on the the tightrope. But you need to get back on the tightrope otherwise there is nothing left to balance - there is nothing trendy about walking straight on the floor.