My daughter leaves for Kenya on Friday.
She will graduate from college in December, and my son finishes his freshman year of high school in two weeks. My children won't really need me for too much longer.
As this part of my life ends, fundamental questions start intruding. I wonder, "Is my life serving a purpose?" I wonder, "Is my presence a net gain for the world?" I wonder, "Is there anything I can still contribute?"
Less obviously self-absorbed questions also occur to me. Can you have an economy in a refugee camp or a slum which benefits the inhabitants? Can you determine a limiting efficiency for implementing an algorithm in the same way that you can define Carnot efficiency for a heat engine? Can you make good choices in the absence of knowledge about the problem?
Finally, I stumble across interesting objects, sites, books and music. This morning, MetaFilter pointed me to a website about Goths in Hot Weather. I have been working my way through Magnum's collection of photographers for a few years. I think the last, most interesting book I read was Graceling, by Kristin Cashore.
I would like to share my questions and my discoveries with people who will take them with some seriousness, or at least gentle disdain. I would like these people to share their questions and discoveries. We are unlikely to discover anything original for the world, but hopefully, our discoveries will be original for us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What gives me most comfort on these questions is my view of math. In my hands, all of math is transient. That is consistent with what we know of the Universe, being 13.7 years old. My life likewise is transient, as is my 6 month old daughter's life.
ReplyDeleteTime is money, literally. The more time your brand connects to more people, the more money you make. Both time and money are finite.