Quick Update

By Mister Curie


Just a quick update.  I finished 3 weeks of Neurology and took the final exam on Friday.  Monday starts a week of Ophthalmology  and the next week is Orthopedic Surgery.  For  Neurology  I was got the assignment to work at the Children's Hospital. It was great to get some clinical interaction with kids again. There was a nice overlap with genetics and Neurology.  It was also incredibly depressing to see some of the terrible things some children go through.  Neurology is home to some of the most depressing  illnesses imaginable.  It reminded me of  Elder Packer's now famous: "Why  would God do that to anyone?"  I saw kids with genetic diseases that left their nerves undeveloped who will never be able to breath on their own.  I saw other kids who have seizures that have destroyed their brains and they no longer can interact with the world.  I saw others born without most of their brain and some who had strokes that had transformed them from normal kids to vegetables.  I prefer to not believe in  a  God  who controls the minutiae of our lives such that He is responsible for such things happening.  If anything, the  experience was a testimony builder for my atheism.  I'm grateful to no longer have to try and reconcile such atrocities with a loving Heavenly Father.

The Meaning of Life

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life.  I don't think that's what we're really seeking.  I think that  what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive."

- Joseph Campbell

"I help myself by making a distinction between the idea that 'we make everything up' (which I don't think is accurate) and 'we give meaning to all that we consciously experience' (which I do think is accurate). . . . Each of us has to create our own frame of reference, which ultimately means only I decide if I am acceptable, if my accomplishments are adequate, and if my life matters. . . . [Some have] connected the idea that 'there is no inherent meaning' to the idea that 'it's all pointless'.  Not for me.  The point for me is that I have to get from here to the end of my life and how I do so matters to me. . . . So for me the question is . . . who will define meaning? If I give other people the power to define meaning for me. . . then I guess the point is to live according to the meaning they define.  Or, I can exercise the power within myself to define meaning for myself. . . . But, based on what?  I answer this by considering what I value.  For me that's the point.  What do I value?  I value being a good [partner]. Now I have meaning in my life. . . . I value being smart. Now I have meaning. I value deepening my way of relating with those closest to me. Now I have meaning. . . . and so on."

- Jake Eagle

Having lost faith in Mormonism, I have been questioning what is the meaning of life if it wasn't The Plan?  If there is no God, as I increasingly believe, is there a meaning to life?  These quotes have given me a lot to ponder.  I think that as we recognize those things that we value and then live our life in harmony with those values, we will find that rapture of being alive and joy in our existence.  And I think that just might be enough.