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Will's Sojourn to find the meaning of life
Journey along with Will. Discover what events in his life have brought him to this quest..
 
Will's writing, stories, and essays on the Meaning of life
 
The Letter writing campaign
I have embarked on a letter writing campaign to many people of the world asking them what they think the meaning of life is. Read the letter, and read the list of people I have sent it to. See their responses, if I get any. As of August 2, 2005 there have been no responses.
 
The Question in a bottle
I will be sending out notes in a bottle. You can keep track of how that is going here. Have I received any replies?
 
People
What do people say the meaning of life is? Learn more here
 
Books
What famous, and not so famous books are there about the meaning of life?
   
Movies
The meaning of life has been covered in movies. Learn more about them.
   
What Comes Next
Inquiries into what happens to us after we die.
   
More
the meaning of life has been explored in many different ways by many different people from music to poetry. Learn more about it here.
   
Quotes
Read quotes about the meaning of life
   
The Blog
Here you can get Will's daily thoughts on his quest.
   
The Bulletin Board
Join the Google group. Here you can read what other people have to say about the meaning of life. You can also post your own thoughts.
   
The Golden Rule:
There is one very important rule that must be followed in this quest. Find out what it is.
   
The Newsletter
If you want to get fresh updates on what Will discovers in his quest to find the meaning of life you can get the free newsletter in your email box.
   



 

 
   
  "We dance around the circle and suppose while the secret sits in the center and knows" - Robert Frost
  Special note: There is a secret little spot on this page that will bring you to a secret page with visual essays that probe into the meaning of life in little ways. Can you find that little spot?
  What is this all about?

This is all about one man's (Will) quest to discover what the meaning of life is. It is as simple as that. Now if you want to understand why I am doing this you have to know a little bit more about meso let me tell you about myself. Find out about what makes me tick, what circumstances have occurred in my life that brought me to this, and why I have embarked on this quest. Understanding Will and why he is making this sojourn

 

 

  Before you click away, read this poem by Edgar Allan Poe
The Sleeping Gypsy by Rousseau - maybe it really is a dream within a dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep–while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

   
  The Question of the Meaning of Life
There are billions of stars in a galaxy yet there are more synapses in your brain than in any galaxy - amazing isn't it?

Don't you ever wonder about why you are here? What strange set of circumstances brought you to this place and time? How is it that you exist in the here and now? And for the billions of years that the universe has been around where were you? Why is it that right now in this moment you exist yet for the previous billion years you didn't? (Or at least you have no recollection of it.) And after you die is it game over? Do you go back to where you were before you came here? Or do you go somewhere else.

But let's get back to the point at hand. There is a reason why we are here. The problem is that we don't know what that reason is.

And this brings up another problem. How do you know what to do if you don't know your goal? What I mean is: How can you live the life you were meant to live if you don't know why you're here? What if you have it all wrong? What if you are are on the wrong path? What if you're not even on a path at all.

 

   
  Since The Beginning of Time We have searched
   
The Epic of Gilgamesh book cover

The Epic of Gilgamesh

As human beings we have all struggled with the question of the meaning of life. This is a thread that we all share with humanity throughout our history. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the oldest book known to mankind. It was written on stone tablets a thousand years before the Iliad and the Bible.You should read this story. There is a new version out with a clean and easy to read english translation.

 

   
  The Plan

There are four different approaches to the search that I am taking:

  • Books - There are books that range back for centuries I will explore these books. They represent the wisdom of people past and present
  • People - I will talk to people and get their ideas. I will do this in two ways: I will ask people when I meet them and I will send people letters
  • Introspection - I will examine myself for the answer
  • Travel: I will travel to places and meet more people On the list of travel is Tibet, Rome, Washington D.C. and others
   
  The Golden Rule: There is one very important Rule in this quest
   
   
   
   
   
 
 

"Follow your Bliss" -Joseph Campbell

Isn't it interesting that the word "if" is positioned right in the middle of the word "Life"?

   
 

We Have a common sky. A common firmament encompasses us. What matters it by what kind of learned theory each man looketh for the truth? There is no one way that will take us to so mighty a secret. -Symmachus A.D. 384