Comments on: It’s all meaningless.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:41:17 +0000

Thank you for telling your story. I love the book THE WORLD LAST NIGHT AND OTHER ESSAYS BY C.S. Lewis. The next time you are in the book store read the chapter Good Work and Good Works. It speaks to the blind materialism that has hijacked our society. I am 41 and have 6 children all under 12. When my first son was born I decided that my wife and family were more important than that starter home, retirement savings and rest of middle class America. Its not been easy: The polite disdain we get from family and people in the church over our decision to do it this way has been overwhelming. We know that the memories we are depositing in their hearts and minds will take them further than material goods ever will.

By: DSeifert

DSeifert — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:39:33 +0000

I tend to think that it is wise to have some level of cynicism, doubt, and reflection on the meaningless as modeled in Ecclesiastes. The use of doubt (what I name as “gentle cynicism”) is an effort to do the serious business of “living” that shoots through relativism, materialism, and nihilism in an effort to sustain the transformative process that is fed on intuition and imagination and thus generating once in awhile significant leaps of illumination.

Feel free to converse with me at http://gentlecynic.blogspot.com

DJS

By: somasoul

somasoul — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 02:01:50 +0000

Hey guys, thanks for your kind words.

I finished clearing out the apartment today. It was weird to see it all empty knowing all that stuff was in a dumpster or given to a charity or divided up between family members.

Our society, maybe all societies, really herald consumption as the way to live. We want better clothes, nicer cars, stylish hair. We are sold on products everyday, everywhere. None of those things really make life much better, do they?

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:47:27 +0000

It’s times like this when Ecclesiasties makes the most sense. And thank God for the “meaningless” passage–it gives me hope that though the writer felt like everything we meaningless, God was in there somewhere.

For what it’s worth, this is the same book that gave us “for everything there is a season”.

Prayers for you and you sludge through an apartment full of shit and a lifetime of memories (not to mention your own grief process)

By: TimN

TimN — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:31:44 +0000

Thanks Somasoul, this is a really moving piece. I appreciate your openness and clear sightedness. It’s a very good reminder of what really matters.

By: SteveK

SteveK — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:05:11 +0000

Thanks for writing this, Somasoul. It’s powerful. I’ll share it with others.

Steve

By: tim

tim — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:49:46 +0000

I feel for you. That’s devastating. Thanks for putting your experience into words, into a story.

By: ST

ST — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:38:31 +0000

thanks for sharing this somasoul. for those of us with our closest relatives still alive and lots of time (hopefully) ahead of us, it is a good reminder to LIVE life to the fullest rather than collect a lot of things.

the other thing i’d recommend to all of us is to write a living will, figure out where your stuff/money can be donated and to design your funeral. i designed mine, and it was a intriguing experience. every once in a while i pull the document up again and tweak it a bit. i think that doing that can help the family out too…but not necessarily.

anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts and emotions.

By: Jason J

Jason J — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:54:35 +0000

Man that is so tough. I really feel for your loss. I’ve lost my mom, mother-in-law and all of my grandparents, so I know what you’re saying about meaningless possessions. Its so weird to empty out your grandparents house and haul off 80 years worth of accumulation to either the dump or goodwill..

I will keep you in my prayers because the worst part of the grief usually starts after all the business is done up until 6 months and afterward.