whats our purpose in life

[windjammer]

so why are we here,we have one life why do we all work 5 days and 2 days off,why cant it be the other way round

[pistonbroke]

Speak for yourself, just arrived on a fact finding mission in Gran Canaria

[Bearbonesnorm]

so why are we here

I asked myself this question many years ago.(still do sometimes)

we have one life

That's partly the answer I came up with.

why do we all work 5 days and 2 days off

I don't ... which was part of the solution.

[jay91]

why do we all work 5 days and 2 days off

Times are changing lots of People shifting from the "9-5" and finding there niche starting business online as it's easy/cheap not to much to go wrong

[slarge]

We don't have to work, but if you want a house, car, shops etc etc etc it kind of goes with the patch.

Some people opt out and live off the land, but as all land is "owned", you either need a friendly landowner or some money.

But we are here to reproduce, and to provide oil for the beings who will live in 200 million years....

[Ray Young]

Just what is it you want to do?
We wanna be free,
We wanna be free to do what we wanna do,
And we wanna get loaded,
And we wanna have a good time,
That's what we're gonna do,
We're gonna have a good time,
We're gonna have a party.

Primal Scream, 1990.

[jay91]

Some people opt out and live off the land, but as all land is "owned", you either need a friendly landowner or some money

Theres an old gypsy around here still using his horse drawn wagon he always seems happy when pass him on the bike.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I love the fact that life is futile and as long as we don't harm / hurt others, then what we do with our time is actually of little importance. It's simply a way of passing the time until the inevitable. However, if you can do some good along the way or make someone smile ... you'll have a better time while you're killing time

[RIP]

Before the industrial revolution nobody worked the regular 9-5, five days a week. Obviously during the industrial revolution it was worse than today: more like 5-23 seven days a week for the poor workers, including the kids. Anyway, before that it seems that people "worked to live", in other words they worked furiously hard for short bursts, mainly in their own dwellings, until they'd got enough to pay for some food and a few beers. Once they had those, they lay around chatting, smoking, quaffing said beers until it was necessary to work again. Obviously this didn't suit the mill-owners who needed their expensive machinery to be working 24/7, hence everyone got shifted into "towns" and educated to fear god, keep themselves clean, and keep sober. In other words, to stop having fun. In other words, not to start bikepacking .

You could do worse than read How To Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson...... whether it's entirely practical in this day and age who knows but you could have fun trying...

And no, you don't need a car, a big house, a big holiday, and a big debt to live a satisfying or interesting life. Modern-day millowners have told you you do but you don't have to believe them.

At the fundamental level, the universe probably just wants you to be a gene-carrier.

[Dave Barter]

Carried my Dad into his house tonight after bringing him back from hospital (he'd fallen). Sat him down with my Mum both of them immobile in their chairs.

Life is for living ladies and gentlemen and living as much as you can while you can.

[darbeze]

Carried my Dad into his house tonight after bringing him back from hospital (he'd fallen). Sat him down with my Mum both of them immobile in their chairs.

Life is for living ladies and gentlemen and living as much as you can while you can.

Dave. You are right. Once again thank you for helping us keep our feet on the ground.

[Lawmanmx]

so why are we here,we have one life why do we all work 5 days and 2 days off,why cant it be the other way round

yer half way there Matt ... you own a bike if your not happy with your lot then have a good think at what would put you on the path to some sort of contentment .... then set off.

[ericrobo]

Thoughts... (not too many it hurts... )

It is an immaculate puzzle:
Asking the question is just the start, and WHAT a question..
BUT it is useless to ask that question in “public” - there is no answer “in public” ( or there are a million answers... all useless)

Deep within and beyond the frontal lobes you have to conduct a search.... ( “ I may be gone a little while...”)

AND:
Who (or what !) asks that question ?

When you don’t have to ask the question is maybe a step on the way to answering it....

But yep what a lot of truth in there about mill-owners and ‘capturing’ us - we are all (mainly) still slaves...

[voodoo_simon]

To pay tax...

[ScotRoutes]

You're here to make babies and look after the place.

Bill Connolly

[voodoo_simon]

You're here to make babies and look after the place.

Bill Connolly

I’m half way there...

[ton]

whats our purpose in life

the same reason we have Knobs and fannies. end of.

[RIP]

An interesting paradox for me is that many of the things that make life fun often annoyingly seem to contribute to shortening it in some way . So 'living life' is not a simple concept and why philosophers have a job for, ahem, life. It took Deep Thought seven and a half million years to come up with a two-digit "answer" so we've no hope in our three-score-and-ten. Maybe "make something happen, create something, leave no trace, and be nice to people and pandas" works? I'm afraid it's why I've always intensely disliked that fatuous Land Rover sticker "one life - live it". Well, yes, thank you chaps, a few more detailed tips and ideas would be more helpful, and it's quite a self-centred sentiment too to be honest. Perhaps trying to work out what life's all about is what life is all about. Hmm.

Famous Last Words aren't a bad place to start looking!

The Italian artist Raphael: "Happy!".
Birth control advocate Margaret Sanger: “A party! Let’s have a party.”

A bit more profound? -
Isaac Newton: "I don’t know what I may seem to the world. But as to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

This has prompted me to re-insert Jerome K Jerome back into my sig.....

[Chicken Legs]

I like Mark Hines take on it ;


"Life is far too short and precious to miss out, preoccupied with a pursuit of the unnecessary. It might be made more comfortable with more money, more and/or better status symbols and that next promotion - and these might even bring a certain amount of satisfaction, for a while - but these are nothing more than distractions.

In a world driven by our economies as they are, and an invented need for corporate and personal wealth, we seem to have become trapped in cycles of self-inflicted (but industry-supported) debt, and resolve to invest our whole lives in being a part of a finance-based system, and even wanting to show others how well we play that game. In that sense, life might be nothing more than some grand game of sudoku - engaging, stimulating, satisfying, but ultimately entirely pointless. We start, we fill in some gaps and we end.

Life is a game and nothing more: how we live nowadays seems a distraction from that which is truly important. I do not want to believe people lie on their deathbeds and reflect on how great they were at working tirelessly and making money. What makes you happy, deep down? What do you love doing? What is your passion? If you do not know, perhaps now is the time to find out. I love to travel, I love being with real friends and the people I love, and I am passionate about living life to the full.

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I do not need to race for 430-miles across the Yukon in Arctic conditions, but I love pushing myself physically and mentally, finding myself on the edge and pushing through to a satisfying, enriching conclusion. I do it because it is what I am passionate about. I love nature and world's wild places, and I want to spend my time experiencing them as best as I can. I am also passionate about education and self-development, hence my priority is to complete my doctorate.

When I have a family I accept my lifestyle will need to be refined, but I will still have similar priorities. The challenge will be to ensure we are all still doing that which enriches us fully in the time we have. Work will be preferably part-time and from home (wherever home is), hence hoping to do well with my books. Travel and learning will be a huge part of what we do - experiencing the world and enjoying each other's company. Aside from that, the balance is to spend more time reading than watching television, being outside in beautiful country rather than sitting indoors, and pursuing my dreams rather than only ever reflecting on them. I like to help others achieve their goals too, or at least help them get onto the path they really want for themselves.

As a goal, mere satisfaction is not enough, although perhaps sufficient for those waiting for a life after death. For me, I need to know I am doing everything I can to live life to the full. Life is such a precious thing. The universe has been here for a little over 13 billion years, and the Earth just over 4 billion. Everything around us exists because of lifecycles, whether the life and death of stars or of the animals and plants composed of stardust. We have a few decades if we are lucky - between growing up and growing old - in which we can truly experience this amazing world around us, to our physical and mental potentials. Maybe one day our societies will be more advanced, utilising technology in place of a workforce, and leisure time will be prioritised as our privilege for being here. Until then, we just have to be more imaginative and daring, in finding ways to make our lifetime truly our own, and what we want it to be." MH

[In Reverse]

I'm here to kick bubblegum and chew ass.

[RIP]

I think your forum name shows a highly original way to live your life actually

[ericrobo]

Who is Mark Hines... ?

(should I know ? )

[Chicken Legs]

Dr Mark Hines is a professional adventurer and endurance athlete, an exercise physiologist and biomechanist, and a writer.

[sean_iow]

Who is Mark Hines... ?

(should I know ? )

His 3 books on ultra marathons, the MDS, Jungle Marathon and Yukon Artic Ultra are well worth a read.

As for the purpose of life... To have a purpose implies being part of a bigger picture? But does life need a purpose? Is simply being not sufficient.... I find in times of contemplation about such things a bike ride usually does the trick

[RIP]

"professional adventurer" - that title worries me in some indefinable way that I haven't got to the bottom of yet.