Empty Spaces, or, What Are We Living For?

[draconica]

If there's a question every philosopher must pursue at least once, it must be the meaning of life.

Since I'm a dragon philosopher and this is a political blog, I must warn you that this question is both non-draconic and anti-political. Politics demand that you keep living and producing and reproducing for the sake of the political whole. On the other hand, dragons are immortal and don't need meaning in their life.

But why do I make such a bold claim that only mortals need to find meaning in their life? Especially as an immortal 3,000 years old dragon? Wouldn't an immortal life feel boring and empty if it was devoid of meaning? Yes, but an immortal may indulge in the emptiness and boredom in a way no mortal creature ever could, because there's no limit to their indulgement.

If a mortal creature is bored for 30 minutes, that's 30 minutes wasted. Of ~65 years of your earthly allowance you've spend some irrevocably. It makes you nervous and paranoid. But… only if you're aware of the time passing, if you can quantify time, if you treat time like a resource. Not every mortal creature is cursed with the same feelings, but only those who know too much for their own good about their mortality.

Humans study mortality like a good cook studies a potato before throwing it into a soup. A cook takes a potato and washes it, then strips it of its skin, then removes blemishes — and all the good edible tasty parts make it into the dish. The same way a person takes one's life, fills it with necessary distractions like taking care of oneself to not die earlier than one should, then the rest of the life is suffering and desires. But the same way eating raw potato isn't as tasty and nourishing, living a life without meaning is also bland and unfulfilling.

One might say that "oh it's totally possible to approach life like one approaches a raw potato", and that would be just another approach to meaning. You can't live a life like a raw potato without first training yourself to live such a life, because abandoning fears and passions and desires is a meaningful work.

So in a way you're cursed to find a meaning. A meaning is a curse. A boiled potato is a course.

Thus a circle is sealed.