What is purpose? What is it to have a purpose, to find one’s purpose? To lose one’s purpose, or to gain it again?
I think these questions are perennial for human beings: part of being human (as Heidegger talks about) is having a sense of our purpose in the world as it relates to the physical and social world of which we are a part.
Purpose is funny though: it is sort of tangible but also sort of not. Being a rocket scientist requires access to scientific technology and books and classes and etc but is not limited to those things (they are like tools in a way).
Where does purpose come from though, an individual’s purpose? I think this question is pretty elusive but also very basic and ready-to-hand. I think we all have some sense of our purpose day-to-day. Being someone into music, being a sister or a brother, an artist, engineer, philosopher, farmer. But the discovering of one’s purpose can be a challenge.
In our world, we are inundanted with nearly-infinite possible purposes: on tv, on youtube, online, etc. We see all kinds of people doing all sorts of things, and it is easy to lose ourselves in the stream of the social.
Being by and with one self can help us find our specific purpose, I think. Having time alone and with our thoughts, feelings, impulses, desires. Learning who we are, investigating ourselves, learning what drives us and what is worth giving ourselves, our energy and our time to.
Purpose is also funny in that we can find, then forget it, then find it again. Then lose it. Or it changes. I have been a substitute teacher, thought about teaching for a bit but then realized that the profession would not give me all I wanted in a profession. Now, with Social Work, I enjoy the work but I find myself coming up against its limits, seeing things I would like to do or want to do but unable to do given what I am required to do as a Social Worker. This is what is so interesting about living in and being a part of the world, as Heidegger explores: living and existing is a process, not an endpoint or goal.
Learning who we are is about trying things, seeing what works and what doesn’t and exploring what our existence means in the larger social and physical world. I remember being frustrated by people who seemed to have a perfect understanding of how they wanted to be when I was younger. Many of them turned out to be just as unsure as me but less honest with themselves about that (although some of them also turned out to do very well in whatever profession they chose). Fortunately, life is both short and long, and we have time to take up again what purpose we feel we may not have already realized: there is so much time left still.
Another comment on purpose that relates to my oft-quoted favorite philosopher Hannah Arendt. In her work, she specifies one area of human activity as fabricating: it is the building of things that will outlive us: like a song, a building, a law, some kind of edifice. In some sense, a purpose is about creating a thing will outlive us, an impression we want to have on the world that will be there even when we are not, building something we will leave behind…
Then again, maybe it is nice to just to relax too, and enjoy the day as it passes…
(The painting has no discernible relation to the topic, but I just like it)
Bearer of Pity 