VIII - Something Else Out There

‘This is the end of an Era man. Do you realize how big this is? Everything we’ve done in our lives, it was leading up to this moment. It was all build-up for the real thing, which is this very moment.’

            ‘ What do you mean?’

            ‘I mean this is it man! How old are you?’

            ‘ You know how old I am.’

            ‘26 right?’

            ‘Yeah.’

            ‘Okay. Out of those 26 years that you have lived so far, how many did you spend studying?’

            ‘I don’t know… maybe 20’.

            ‘Right. And before that you were too young to even make decisions by yourself or do anything at all by yourself for that matter.’

            ‘Yeah. So what’s your point?’

            ‘My point, dear Jean, is that our entire lives so far have been sacrificed to the preparation for what lies ahead. And whatever that is, it is upon us. It’s scary and exciting at the same time. We have so many possibilities, so much choice, that choosing just one option seems more daunting than never.’

            ‘Yeah maybe, but we have more opportunities than any generation before us. Our great-grand-parents, our grand-parents and even our parents didn’t have nearly as much of a say on what they wanted to do with their lives as we do. We can do pretty much anything, and for this we should feel blessed.’

            ‘I agree… to a certain extent. My point is that we’ve reached a point where we have so many options to chose from that actually picking one single option is very, very hard. I feel lost in an ocean of possibilities.’

            ‘So what do you think we should do? How do you think we can finally find the shore?

            ‘I dunno… I just graduated and I’m already sorry I chose to study Philosophy. It makes a lot more sense as a subject of study inside Academia than it does in the outside world.’

            ‘Yeah… but now is too late.’

            Yes it is… but you know what? I don’t know if I would have done anything different if I could go back in time… or maybe I would, but to be honest, even now I don’t know what. I think that there is a fundamental problem that I can’t seem to be able to solve.’

            ‘What is it?’

            ‘The meaning of life.’

            ‘Come on man! Maybe you shouldn’t have spent that much time studying philosophy after all.’

            ‘Maybe not.’

            ‘You made me curious now though, what do you mean by that exactly?’

            ‘Well you see, choosing a subject of study is, in essence, choosing a path in life, wouldn’t you agree?’

            ‘Yes, I suppose.’

            ‘But what if you can’t decide which one your path is? Then what?  

            ‘I guess in that case it would be hard to choose a subject of study.’

            ‘Exactly. Now sometimes, people can’t overcome this fundamental difficulty decide to postpone the resolution of this complex problem and they do so by choosing to study vague things like philosophy in my case or Economy in yours.’

            ‘Well, I don’t know, economics is not that vague.’

            ‘Are you sure? What job are you expected to have after you finish a degree in economics?’

            ‘A job in a company.’

            ‘What sort of company? Doing what?’

            ‘Well… any sort of company. Doing accounting, management, stuff like that.’

            ‘Stuff like that…any sort of company… doesn’t that sound a little bit vague to you?’

            ‘Well, I guess you have a point,’ conceded Jean-Pierre.

            I believe I do Jean. Even if we postponed the resolution of the fundamental problem by choosing to study vague subjects, here we are now, faced with implacable choices once again. The problem is, now it’s a lot harder to keep postponing that choice. The time has come to decide what task we are going to perform in society.’

            ‘Man, you make it sound so dramatic!’

            ‘Is it not? Don’t you think that the task we perform in society is probably the single most important factor that defines us as individuals? So if that is the case, don’t you think that selecting that task is not a dramatic choice?

             ‘At least everyone has to go through the same process, so we’re not alone.’

            ‘Everyone has to be born and has to die too, and that doesn’t make those events any less dramatic. In fact, choosing a task in life might even be more dramatic than birth or death, since it is the only one out of the three that is dependent on one’s free-will.’

            ‘Leonardo, relax. It’s hard but everyone goes through that process at some point in his or her life. Right now it’s our turn, and I know that it’s hard but we’ll manage like everyone else does.’

            ‘Yeah, we’ll be like everyone else. They are born and they go to school and to university in order to prepare themselves to become engineers and lawyers and doctors and dentists and architects and computer experts and whatever else society wants them to be. And they live their lives happily, knowing that they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing.’

            ‘What other choice do we have man?’

            ‘I don’t know… It seems that we have none. Yet in my heart I feel that there must be something else, and in my brain ideas of rebellion are starting to flourish. I don’t know what else we can do but there must be something!’ Said Leonardo, clinching his right fist. ‘Maybe there is an answer to this question and maybe it’s hidden somewhere out there in the world. There must be… and I want to look for it.’

            ‘How are you planning on doing that?’

            ‘I’m gonna hit the road. I’m going to travel the world trying to find this truth. I must do it.’

            ‘What if it’s not out there?’

            ‘The I won’t find it. Yet I have to try. I just can’t go through with this right now man. I can’t start looking for a job right now until I can figure out if there’s something out there.’

The Traveller is Listening to:

Dust in the Wind (Kansas, 1977)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2w6Oxx0kQ