The other day I was in a garden centre, where they were clearing up all the christmas nonsense. It was early january and the gods had obviously decided that it was time for something else to sell to the masses.

I was looking at their faces that showed no pleasure in handling all the goods that were made for us in asian countries by people that were probably also not very happy with their work.

The sight didn’t please me.

I went on to the bird feed section, to get some food for the victims of our mass consumerism.

In our contemporary society people like to get fulfilment from their jobs.

Earlier on, and in other parts of the world, the need for fulfilment was/is probably not so present, because people were/are struggling to survive.

Where I live, people still need to survive, only it’s more of a mental survival of the fittest.

The not so fit ones use antidepressant or alcohol or something else to feel less dead inside, and the fit ones get more money and still feel empty.

But the fit ones have money to go on skiing holidays in the winter, where they repeatedly go up and down a hill, with no real purpose.

At night they feast on the corpses of dead pigs and wash their flesh down with poison.

Yeah really, this is not a happy story.

So, is life a totally pointless exercise and is reproduction of ourselves even more pointless, since it’s keeping the circle of suffering intact? (Yes, I’m cutting a few corners; I can’t spend all day on this at my age.)

Well, perhaps there is a way to make your life less miserable and for me that lies in caring about others.

Caring about others for me means:

1. Eating Vegan. Because it’s ethically correct and it can be very healthy and it’s good for the trees and shit
2. Doing something for others in my spare time. For me that means working for the Party for the Animals and for Nutritionfacts.org, because I care about animals – what a surprise –  and there are lots of people doing something for people, only not so many people do something for animals. Which does effect people too by the way, so me, so there goes my altruism.
3. Being nice to the people around me. It doesn’t cost money to not be a dick.

Ofcourse the things I do for others only make my life meaningful in a framework of total meaninglessness.  But I can live with that. And I also do not fully believe it; it’s a rational framework, to think of life as bound to a framework.

There is ample evidence of the existence of a soul in people, look it up, and if we have a soul there may also be a creator and then there may be purpose too.

We just don’t know it, but let’s give it the benefit of the doubt.

After all, you have two options in life:

1. To kill yourself because everything is ultimately pointless. (Or to act as the source of information in a gameshow like The smartest person, where you sit with a bored face untill you may make a joke that makes you look superior.)
2. To make the best of it.

Why am I writing all this down?

Well, I think there are a number of important motivations for writing:

1. You need money and hope writing can make you end your job at a garden centre
2. You think you have something to say that is worth reading for others
3. You have no kids and want to leave some heritage in this world in order not to perish after you die

Giving the fact that I believe The self does not die  you already figured out which option it’s not in my case.

Since I’m writing mainly in my blog and on Twitter, it’s not rocket science to pick one of the two remaining options to figure out my motivation.

Hope you enjoyed my rambling. Now be happy and be harmless please.