Ecclesiastes 1:2:”Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”. When I was living in Singapore, I listened to a sermon about this particular book in the Bible. I can never forget it because the truth and the poignancy of it left such a lasting impression. The first line itself just resonated with the things I couldn’t articulate but had always felt inside.

The author of Ecclesiastes laments about the senselessness of everything – of pleasures, material gains, hard work, even wisdom - because whatever enjoyment or achievement in life will be nulled by the inevitability of death. Even the cyclical nature of things – the days, the seasons, the tides, generations coming and going - are tiresome and purposeless to the author. Because at the end of the day – what does it all matter?

There is no new thing under the sun. All is grasping the wind.

This book was written more than 2000 years ago, but it’s just as relevant then as it is now. People 2000 years ago and people today are still asking, “What the fuck is all this about, really?”

As I get older, the question crosses my mind more and more. What’s all this stuff for? From the time you wake up until you stagger home, dead tired from work – do you ever wonder if there is a Point? I write copy. Can I seriously believe that any of my work will affect anything more than a tiny peak in some marketing chart IF I’M LUCKY?

So the work’s for the money (and whatever masochistic enjoyment you get out of slaving for someone), to eat, to pay the bills, buy the house(s), hook up, get kids (oops), spoil them silly, go on family vacations, pay for your Alzheimer’s meds, your retirement home fees… and then your kids use whatever’s left to buy your funeral plot.

If you think this sounds cynical, try reading the Biblical version.

But of course, the author had a message and wasn’t just rambling on because his scrolls of sheepskin parchments were some ancient form of blogging. If life under the sun is all vanity and grasping for the wind, how then should we live? The author was really demonstrating how futile everything is if death is the penultimate of existence, which the Christian doctrine says is not. So he counsels to live honourably, do things in moderation, enjoy God’s gifts in one’s own labour, fear Him, keep His commandments, etc, because God will bring judgement.*

You may or may not agree depending on your own belief system. But if you are a thinking, rational being, the question of the meaning of your life will at some point be posed. I don’t think it’s necessarily easier for ‘religious’ people to know, either, because while faith can be as solid as a mountain, it can be as elusive as a black cat on a tar road at midnight…

It bothers me these days, about what I’m trying to achieve with my life. All I see everywhere these days are endless cycles of meaningless activities motivated by hedonism. That’s why I admire people who commit to causes, from people ‘up there’ like international rock star Bono down to the volunteer workers in the  Johor floods. Because they could choose to do nothing. They could choose to devote their time, money, energy and resources to pursuing vanities.

I hope that if this post doesn’t help to put you to sleep, it will at least be a thought-starter for questions I’ve been posing to myself: How have I made my life more meaningful? What can I do to better my life and those around me? What do I want my legacy to be?

Good luck in your journey!

Note: I’m obviously not an authority on the Bible or history, so this extremely brief outline of the book is merely based on my understanding of lessons taught in church and information gleaned online. I also aknowledge that as with many historical documents, there are different interpretations of the book of Ecclesiastes.