The Meaning of Life : Politicians, Scientists, Even Kids in Boxcars Have a Special View of the Universe

HERE HAS been much speculation on the meaning of life. Why are we here? Mostly the answers are those of theologians, philosophers, physicists and others who are thought to have some special pipeline to the eternal mysteries.

But all of us wonder why we are here. It is a question that occurs to little boys and girls playing with their toys; to college students; to plumbers, teachers, U.S. senators, nurses, soldiers, the homeless, ship captains and chief executive officers.

Their answers are rarely found in Bartlett’s or any other compilation of quotations; yet the wisest men admit that the answer is beyond philosophy and science. So we might as well listen to Yogi Berra’s answer as Emerson’s or Einstein’s.

In a recent issue, Life magazine asked a number of people, including sages, poets, scholars, athletes and tradesmen to answer the question. It published their answers under the title, “The Meaning of Life.”

The answers ranged from the poetic and profound to the profane and scatological. Some agreed with Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun that “with our finite minds we cannot presume to know if there is a Purpose.” Former boxer Muhammad Ali said that “life on earth is only a preparation for the eternal home.” Businessman Armand Hammer said that we are here “to do good.”

There was just as much truth, it seemed to me, in the more irreverent answer of a taxi driver, Jose Martinez, who said, “We’re here to die; just to live and die. . . . Life is a big fake.” Or a barber, Frank Domofrio, who said, “I’ve been asking why I’m here most of my life. If there’s a purpose, I don’t care anymore. I’m 74. I’m on my way out.” Or comedian Jackie Mason, who said, “ ‘What is the meaning of life?’ is a stupid question. Life just exists . . . I see life as a dance. Does a dance have to have a meaning? You’re dancing because you enjoy it.”

Writer Charles Bukowski’s answer was anti-Establishment: “We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war.”

Many of the people quoted in Jon Winokur’s book “Zen to Go” (New American Library) tease the question in the mysterious way of Zen. He catches former Gov. Jerry Brown saying, “Life just is. You have to flow with it. Give yourself to the moment. Let it happen.” (No wonder columnist Mike Royko called him Moonbeam.) Writer Andre Gide says simply, “Life eludes logic,” which is about all that Domofrio was saying. And philosopher Santayana says, “There is no cure for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval.”

The late Richard P. Feynman, the Caltech physicist and Nobel Prize winner, turned the question upon itself:

I wonder why. I wonder why.

I wonder why I wonder.

I wonder why I wonder why

I wonder why I wonder.

As far as we know, Feynman never found the answer.

Winokur quotes the beatnik novelist Jack Kerouac as saying, “I don’t know. I don’t care. And it doesn’t make any difference.”

In a similar mood, author Edward Abbey is quoted as saying, “What is truth? I don’t know, and I’m sorry I brought it up.”

And writer H. L. Mencken, with his usual blunt cynicism, said, “We are here, and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.”

Two sage observations on the danger of thought come from Yogi Berra, that uncut diamond of the baseball park, and O. J. Simpson, the great running back. Berra: “How can you think and hit at the same time?” And Simpson: “Thinking . . . is what gets you caught from behind.”

The plain-spoken writer Gertrude Stein is given a special place at the front of the book: “There ain’t no answer. There ain’t going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer.”

But we keep searching. I remember grappling with the question one night when I was 18 as I lay on a boxcar near Riverside, looking at the stars. The closest I came then, and ever since, is that the purpose of life is to keep on living and see what happens next.

And we should be good to others and do what we can to end war.