What is the meaning of life? 15 possible answers - from a palliative care doctor, a Holocaust survivor, a jail inmate

[Swede]

Some thoughtful answers in the article.

Whatever is happening, experiencing it fully means both being present and being aware of being present. The only moment in our lives that we can ever have any choice about is this one. Even then, we cannot choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond: we can rejoice in the good things, relax into the delightful, be intrigued by the unexpected, and we can inhabit our own emotions, from joy to fear to sorrow, as part of our experience of being fully alive.

I’ve observed that serenity is both precious and evanescent. It’s a state of flow that comes from relaxing into what is, without becoming distracted by what might follow. It’s a state of mind that rests in appreciation of what we have, rather than resisting it or disparaging it. The wisest people I have met have often been those who live the most simply, whose serenity radiates loving kindness to those around them, who have understood that all they have is this present moment.

That’s what I’ve learned so far, but it’s still a work in progress. Because it turns out that every moment of our lives is still a work in progress, right to our final breath.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/22/what-is-the-meaning-of-life-15-possible-answers-from-a-palliative-care-doctor-a-holocaust-survivor-a-jail-inmate-and-more

[NoRethugFriends]

1. To quote Tom Lehrer, life is like a sewer

What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

[elocs]

2. Yes, life only has the meaning that you make of it. Nothing more, nothing less. n/t

[usonian]

3. I skimmed and couldn't get past this account.

‘The first awareness, in Bergen-Belsen, was that kindness and goodwill had survived’: Susan Pollack, Holocaust survivor
Susan Pollack

In response to your letter, here are a few thoughts that assisted me to look forward in my youth after those bleak, horrendous times in 1944. I am a camp survivor from Auschwitz and was liberated from Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945. I was totally dehumanised, fearful, distrustful, lost to contemplate the future, all alone, unable to comprehend the values for a life in a modern civilisation.

Fourteen years old – unable to walk, to express the latent, suppressed anguish – the realisation I only speak Hungarian, no skills, no education, no finance, no support system, no knowledge.

The first awareness, in Bergen-Belsen, was the discovery that kindness and goodwill had also survived. When the British soldier lifted me up from the mud hole – seeing a twitch in my body – he gently placed me in one of the small ambulances. From that experience, miraculous goodwill is one of the guiding lights to this day. I often think of that moment and ask, “What part of that goodness with your heart do you take from that soldier?”

Kindness, generosity comes in small everyday events. Small measures of goodness have an enormous impact – to this day I take nothing for granted. I remember the effect and appreciation this first helpfulness had on my life – it gradually removed the heavy iron cover on me, and sparks of “I can do” and “I want to do” gradually came into my existence.

[Swede]

4. Her account was the one that touched me the most.

The one act of kindness and now she has grandchildren to play with.

[electric_blue68]

5. Vivid, and beautifully writen. Ty

[Kaleva]

6. To propagate the species

A hundred years after our deaths, maybe just a few will know our names and know anything about our lives.

Just outside of town is an old, abandoned cemetery. In it are some very impressive headstones at the heads of the graves of once prominent citizens of my hometown. Their funerals probably were well attended but they now lay forgotten.

My wife's and I grandchildren love coming over and I tell my wife that when they become old like us, they'll tell their grandchildren about Nana and Papa.

Up in the attic there is a briefcase stuffed with paper. Papers that would explain why, to someone who was observent, why our early group family pictures are the way they are. My wife and I are the only two that know about the briefcase and what it contains. My hope is that the family members who are young today will read those papers later when they are older.