One of my guilty pleasures in the mid 1980s was a movie called “St. Elmo’s Fire,” a Brat Pack effort about seven friends fresh out of college trying to get started on their road to success.
Andrew McCarthy plays a young journalist who dreams of someday writing about The Meaning of Life.
He has a job impossible to get in real life, as a reporter for the Washington Post straight out of college, and within a year he’s writing a column called The Meaning of Life.
Has there ever been a more unanswerable question than “What is the meaning of life?”
I can’t tell you the meaning of life. I suppose it means different things to different people, but I can tell you what it’s not.
It isn’t “He who dies with the most toys, wins.”
It isn’t bending other people to your will and dominating.
About 13 years back, when I was spending most of the summer in the Texas Hill Country, I discovered what I thought were three keys to happiness.
First, love God so that you may understand you are not the crown of creation. There are things in this world that matter more than you.
Second, abide by the one rule at the center of every religion except Satanism (really). Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
Third, and the most difficult one to follow, is to let go of regrets and avoid living in the past. Enjoy the present and plan for the future.
And if I could add a fourth, which is really just an expansion of the second, be kind.
If you need an example to inspire you, look to Jimmy Carter. In the 42 years since he left the White House, the 39th president has earned a spot on any list of the most admirable Americans. I never had the chance to meet him, but one of my closest friends had an internship in his White House during his last year in office.
Maybe the nicest thing I could say about Carter is that I don’t know anyone I would consider a good person who doesn’t admire him.
I know I certainly do.
He is the only president of the last half-century who didn’t do anything to feather his own nest after leaving office. He lives in the same house in the same small town where he has spent most of his adult life.
You want the meaning of life?
I’ll bet President Carter could give you a pretty good answer.
I like this cartoon.
It says a lot that a man who could have had all the riches and fame anyone ever wanted was still building houses for Habitat for Humanity all the way into his nineties.
We should all strive to follow in his example.