The Secret to a Meaningful Life
Recently I took a long road trip with my youngest daughter, who is 17. We had with us a pack of cards that are “conversation starter questions” and we often whip these out on car rides for a little fun chit chat while driving (are we weird? Probably, but I don’t mind).
One of the questions on this trip was “What do you think is the secret to a meaningful life?”
Tough question. We can’t be here forever, and that’s something I think more and more about as I enter my 50s. I go to more funerals than weddings these days, that’s for sure.
But I was very pleased with my answer: “To create something.”
It doesn’t mean you have to be a world-class artist or composer, or even have a hobby that is traditionally creative or artistic. What I mean is: don’t just consume other people’s work. Learn new stuff, and use that learning to make something new to add to this world, no matter how small, no matter how unnoticed.
Keep a diary of life as you see it. Tweak every recipe for pancakes you find until you have your own perfect ingredients and cooking style. Write a beautiful piece of code that powers some obscure part of the internet. Make a scrapbook of your child’s first year. Use LEGO to build a replica of your home town. Invent a new at-home filing system for all tax receipts that makes doing your taxes easier. (Please, I beg you, do this and then tell me all about it.)
I think this is one reason people don’t understand people who don’t want to have children. For a lot of people, having a child is their Creative Thing. No matter how it turns out, you made a whole other person! And invested uncountable hours in shaping that person’s worldview and personality and style! And built a family out of literally nothing! That’s creativity, but it’s just one way to be creative.
You don’t have to change the entire world, but build something for yourself. Share it if you can, but if you can’t, know that you still made something that no one else did or ever could. If you’re really lucky, you’ll have enough time and space in your life to do this many times, to create over and over, to try your hand at this and that and the other thing, leaving a trail of creative breadcrumbs behind you for future generations to follow.
That’s not just a meaningful life, in my opinion; that’s a happy life.
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