I often have philosophical discussions with my father that last hours. It may very well be that I've inherited the hunger for knowledge from him, but this of course does not mean we always agree on our observations.
Yesterday we started to discuss the idea that things must happen for a reason, and it's up to us to accept and embrace even the most bitter of memories. As you can imagine, this can be a polarizing subject because even suggesting otherwise is somewhat nihilist and disruptive.
It may be unimpressive to believe that there is no particular plan, no fate so to speak, but I'm currently standing firmly in that hill, simply because I've began to understand the paradoxical notions of free will and destiny we seem to unapologetically embrace in the western cultures. However, discussing that with my father proved to be very difficult to say the least, and the reasons are probably very obvious. Generational cultural gaps are actually a thing, and I failed to calculate in my wording, which may have been to aggressive at times, the influence of being more acquainted with our mortality.
Younger minds probably think different, not only because of the lack of experience and perspective, but also because they hold a lot more of the one asset we can't buy back, time, and thus squander it in banalities and meaningless activities with much more ease. This stands in contrast to someone who must be wondering how many more years he or she is to witness.
Point is, looking back, we can all try to find meaning in everything, even adjust our own memories if ever so slightly, just to be able to archive, if you will, a more palatable version of our past self that does actually deserve some good things after all.
These processes, these mental machinations and the possibility of there being no actual meaning, should not be too controversial to anyone that does some inner searching. But, it's obvious to me now, that those who do, those who question, stand in the minority, and maybe, just maybe, that's a good thing that keeps society a little more civil.
