The Impossible Questions: What is the truth? What is the meaning of life?

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I know I did. I ate way too much, but anywho……let’s get back to business. I would like to address something that has been pondered on since the dawn of time. Great philosophers all through the ages have asked this question. It is simply, “what is truth?” With truth, other questions come into light like “what is the meaning of life?” These quotes bring up the questions of reality, fate, and truth. These questions have had theological, philosophical, and scientific speculations. It has caused much controversy between religions and other groups. You can see these questions in literature we have read.

Literatures that we have read that apply to this situation are Oedipus and Waiting for Godot. In Oedipus, Oedipus has to face the truth with his fate. No matter what, he will marry his mother and kill his father. The he has to deal with the reality of realizing that he is the one who is causing the plague on the city of Thebes that is killing many people. Then in the play Waiting for Godot, it deals with surrealism of everyday life. In the play, it addresses that a human being's life is totally dependent on chance, and, by extension, time is meaningless; therefore, a human's life is also meaningless, and the realization of this drives humans to rely on nebulous, outside forces, which may be real or not, for order and direction. The basic premise of the play is that chance is the underlying factor behind existence. This is seen when Vladimir mentions the parable of the two thieves in the Bible. This play focuses on the philosophical theory of Existentialism.

When I think of this quote, there is one movie that comes to mind…..The Matrix. Tom Anderson (Neo) is an average computer programmer by day and by night, a hacker known as Neo. Neo has always questioned his reality, but the truth is far beyond his imagination. He has always felt that there was something wrong in the world and that there is a lie that is covering him from the truth. Neo finds himself targeted by the police when he is contacted by Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker. Morpheus meets Neo where he gives him a choice to choose between what is the truth and what is fake. "You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." Neo chooses the red pill and learns the truth and fate about life.

I believe that intellectual people spend a great deal of time wanting to learn more about life and they ponder on questions like these. I have spent many sleepless nights asking myself, “What is truth?” and “What is the meaning of life?” I can’t come up with a definite answer. Even being a religious person and using what I’ve been told that we live our life for God, I’ve always had a sense of doubt where I wonder if what I believe is true. No one knows for sure what the truth is and what the meaning of life is, but we can always ponder the questions.

Until next time, keep your heart open and love will always find away.

Thank you,

Ryan Sperratore