The Meaning of Life, according to A.C. Grayling

A.C. Grayling has rewritten the Bible. He's pretty confident in his opinions.

Photo via The Guardian.

In five minutes, philosopher A.C. Grayling offers an insightful and compact meditation on the meaning of life. Watch the video here. (I really wish I could embed the video, but alas, it's hosted on the New York Times website.)

If you're not convinced, here's an excerpt that gets to the heart of imbuing life with meaning and perspective: "It's up to you...Find something. Create something. Recognize the profoundly palliative character of love, of the human affections and friendship. And live with dignity. And when you do this, you find something -- and it sounds very simple and very glib but it's true -- that the meaning of life is to make life meaningful. That's a responsibility you have."

(You really should click through and watch the video, to get the full effect. Link again.)

His words remind me of a favorite quote from Annie Dillard: "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." It seems so simple, but it can be hard, at the end of a long day, to cherish every moment, to steep the passing hours in significance, to do something other than collapse on the couch after work or class or rehearsal and watch bad reality TV while eating Nutella with a spoon, directly from the container. It's hard to feel as though one's accomplished work is enough. To reach beyond what's expected. It's easier to settle. To become anesthetized. To lose fire and passion. Are these not the individual's private philosophical concerns, the gateway drugs to depression and isolation? Humans weren't meant to be alone or depressed; we were meant to thrive and explore, to make connections.

Or maybe our purpose was to create the Internet, so that we could all post pictures of our cats, and then in 2012 the Internet will open up, screaming like a banshee, and swallow us whole, starting with the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) and quickly followed by the rest of the northern American continent. South America will go next, hinged on the Panama Canal and unable to resist the pull of North America toward the depths of the earth. Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia will eventually crumble and be engulfed. Greenland will meander, trying to dissociate itself from the real continents, but the sinkhole will get it eventually, submerging it, forcing it beneath the surface. Various island chains will be the last to go before the earth is left desolate, destroyed by our obsession with anthropomorphizing cats for not only Halloween, but every other day of the year too. Only Antarctica, a place that has never seen cats, will survive. A refugee camp will be established, and the human race will rebuild--

What? Cats have been visiting Anarctica since right after WWII? Well fuck. We're doomed.