No mercy

This morning, like many other mornings, our little one woke us up early, just after six o'clock. First he wants comfort, then he wants milk, then he wants to play with his toy cars. It doesn’t matter to him of course how tired his parents are, or how late they went to bed last night. He shows no mercy... So, I got up and let my wife sleep while taking care of our son. She deserves to rest after a hard weeks work at the UN. When we both worked full time we used to have discussions on who should be with our son early Sunday mornings. But I accept that this is my responsibility now, since I am no longer the breadwinner for the family. After all, it is much better than having to deal with deadlines, zillions of daily emails, supervisors, stressed out colleagues…

Yesterday we heard about another case of no mercy, unfortunately, albeit on a completely different scale. A hideous organized crime, carried out by one government, and backed up and applauded by some others, including the world’s most powerful one. Gruesome pictures were cabled out picturing a bearded man awaiting death with a rope around his neck. Then, a few hours later, more pictures of the same man, dead.

One might say that if someone should be sentenced to death, it is Saddam Hussein. I agree with that. But then again – no one should. Killings signed, approved and undertaken by democratic (or undemocratic, for that matter) governments are NEVER acceptable. First of all because it is inhuman and irreversible. But also because it is futile. It simply doesn’t work. Barbaric acts will always promote new barbaric acts. Especially when sanctioned by government and society in general.

Within a few hours after Saddams execution, over 70 people had died in new bombings. So, what exactly have been, and will be, accomplished by this hideous act? Other than barbaric, bestial revenge? Other than making the man a martyr, promoting more fanaticism?

Sometimes (like now) I miss a real sleep in morning. But then again, it is such a privilege to be a father to this wonderful guy. It outweighs by far any of the little discomforts that parenthood brings along. What is more, I hardly ever experienced any sunrises before he was born. And I have come to realize that are quite nice. Besides, days tend to be longer when you wake up early. More can be achieved. Like writing another blog, for instance. Now THAT is a true accomplishment, is it not?

The meaning of life - if any

2006 is soon coming to an end. And this blog is coming to a brand new start. Most of the contributons in this blog will probably be quite down to earth and linked to our everyday life as expats in Cape Verde. But what to write in this very first contribution? Why not start off by sharing some thoughts about the basic of basics - the of the so called "meaning of life". It could perhaps provide a foundation for the rest of this blog, to give an idea of where the author of this blog is coming from, on a more philisophical level. So, here it goes:

Human life has no inherent meaning - and, what is more, this circumstance also has no meaning.

Despite common beliefs, it is easy to see that the general notion of the so called “meaning of life” is always completely made up, either designed by yourself, or, in the case of religions, already designed by others as a pre-given “truth”.

While human life might in retrospect appear to be planned or meaningful, in reality, very little of what goes on in our lives is but a series of coincidental events.

Most people seem to prefer to attach a “meaning” to events in order to grasp all those coincidental things that just seem to happen to us, especially those that we don’t understand. We can in that sense be described as “meaning-making” machines. This might be a natural consequence of the fact that humans have the capacity to understand a lot, but not everything. At some point in time, we all realize that we don’t understand everything, and this realization makes us very uncomfortable. Therefore, we have a very strong driving force to “create” meanings.

The notion that life is meaningless seems to be very difficult for many people to accept; some, including most believers of the main world religions, would even say that life is not worth living if it has no meaning. Consequently, many seem to attach a major (negative) significance to the possibility that life has no meaning.

I would argue, however, that this circumstance – that life has no meaning – has in itself no meaning. It is not bad. It is not good. It just is (as a possibility). Interestingly, this second notion seems to be even more difficult for humans to grasp, or to accept. (Many classical existentialists, such as Sartre and his followers, are evidence of this as they tended to be very pessimistic about the conclusion that life has no meaning.)

The bad news about life having no meaning is that there is no “higher cause” or something “all-mighty" that lies behind the good and the bad things that happen to us and others. (Ever heard – and reflected on – the expression "God works in mysterious ways”? This is just a way of saying I have no clue why this bad thing happened, but there just MUST be a reasonable explanation…)

The good news however is that if there is no pre-given meaning, there is lots of space to create one for ourselves! One that is based on inspiration, caring about others, and generosity. Rather than something that is pre-given, written down, interpreted and distorted countless times, mostly by old men some hundreds of years ago.

This is my simple starting point for my life philosophy.