"In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for 'finding himself.'  If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence."                                                    ~Thomas Merton

Perhaps life's most challenging question is, "Why are we here?"  I remember—when I was perhaps eight years old--having breakfast at the yellow Formica kitchen table at our farm in Oklahoma. I recall thinking, "Why am I here with these people instead of being somewhere else?"  It wasn't that I was discontent—just curious.  At the same time, I wondered if that was a normal thought for a kid—or anyone else for that matter.  While it may have been a bit precocious to wonder about those things at such an early age, I imagine that almost everyone thinks about this question at some juncture in their life.

The answer is both simple and endlessly complex—opening up another whole series of related questions.

Why is the human race here?  Are we here as just a result of a random quirk of nature or the grand plan of a superior being?  This question is up to each individual to answer for him/herself and forms an attitudinal and philosophical baseline for most of the other questions that we discuss here.

Why are we?  Biologically, we are each here as a result of a union between our parents.  That's the easy, indisputable part of the answer.  On another level, though, we're asking, What is our purpose here?

The existentialist point of view expressed by René Descartes, "I think, therefore I am", provokes a chicken-or-egg follow-up. Do I think because I am? And if I didn't think, would I then cease to be?  Perhaps Descartes is actually saying that by virtue of being aware of our existence, we therefore exist.

Another perspective presents a rather morose take on this topic.  Shakespeare's Hamlet agonizes, "To be or not to be, that is the question", suggests that we're here—at least on one very profound level—because we choose to be; or perhaps more accurately, because we choose to continue to be.  

Why are we here and not somewhere else?  We all find ourselves at our current location based largely on our personal history of many "fork-in-the-road" decisions from our past.  While each successive decision eliminates multiple potential outcomes, our choices also open up a whole new range of possibilities that will ultimately define our eventual destiny as a consequence of these present and future decisions.

The philosophical discussion is interesting, but now the most pertinent questions become, "Where do I want to go from here?" and "Are my day-to-day actions and decisions consistent with the direction that I have chosen?"

©2001-2008 Don McBroom - Personal Astrological Consultations - Tucson, AZ (520) 298-3456

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