The Meaning of Life
by Supreme Court Justice HARRY BLACKMUN

It is perhaps more difficult to answer the question "Why are we here?" than it is to answer "What ought we to do, now that we are here?" The latter, I suppose, has led to the events that constitute the history of man, so far as we know it; to the development of our social structures; to our sense of beauty, however expressed; to the emergence of the world's legal systems; and to our conceptions of morality and all the other factors that enter, or fail to enter, into it—faith, trust, justice, compassion, understanding, peace.

But here we are. Not one of us asked to be here or had very much to do with his arrival. With our finite minds we cannot presume to know if there is a Purpose. We sense, however, the presence of something greater than we can comprehend, a force as yet unknown to us—perhaps ever to be unknown. So we accept our situation, learn from it, and do the best we can, resting on faith, despair or cynicism, depending on the individual. Overriding all this must be an obligation—self-imposed or externally impressed—to do the best one can for others, to relieve suffering and to exercise compassion. We are all in this together, for life is a common, not an individual, endeavor.

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Next: The meaning of life according to D.M. Thomas.
 
 

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