Red Leigh Cooper

Red Leigh Cooper

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Conan, What is Best in Life...

      When I was in the heyday of my last band, we used to have this great pre-show ritual.  Someone would start us off and say, "What is best in life?"  To which we would all reply, "Crush your enemies, see them driven before, and hear the lamentations of their women!"  Before you think anything weird, this is a movie line from Conan the Barbarian (the Arnold Schwarzenegger version)




       Great way to start a gig, huh?

       While Conan seemed to have a clear vision about what was best in, or really the meaning of, life, most of us don't have it that together. I was looking for keywords to drive search engines toward this blog and figured out I wasn't the only one having trouble grabbing the starfish. There are so many of us searching for the " meaning of life" on the Internet that I thought I would take some time to reflect on that question...

     ...and I guess ultimately on what I'm doing with this blog.  Figuring out my purpose in this world is what I writing about after all, right?  I started thinking though should that purpose ultimately be the same for everyone or based on what I feel I bring to the table individually?

      During this time, I saw this saying on Facebook:   "Life is not about a destination. It's how you live along the way."  Soon after I also saw, "Some of the hardest questions have the easiest answers."  I think both of these sayings are relevant to the question at hand. I also think that most of us are starting to take our philosophical musings to Facebook...we are looking for the "likes," i.e. the people that feel the same way and may have the same questions we do.

     Maybe that "easy" answer really is that we shouldn't be searching for one answer to the great question of the meaning of life, but should be finding the meaning of our own individual lives here on this earth.  We are all so different....I mean, wouldn't the meaning of life be different for each person here?  Shouldn't it be about identifying our own unique gifts and the use of them?  I guess that's ultimately what I believe...  The destination doesn't even come for me when I finally grab that starfish.  What do I do then with the starfish?  How do I essentially "live along the way?" 

     This brings me back to my Conan story. For us, performing that little ritual was a definite bonding experience for us. It reminded us to go out there and put on the best show possible and essentially "crush our enemies."  However, we were all individuals in the collective and just what crushing our enemies  meant was of a different significance for each of us.  It wasn't about just getting to the end of the show; it was about how we performed during that 45 minutes....together...yet showcasing our own distinct talents...

     ...individuals in the collective...I knda like that.  All of us togther on a journey, but in our own way grabbing our very own bright, beautiful, and perfect starfish...

    What is "best in life" for you?  Do you believe it's a universal truth or an individual approach to life?  Tell me in the comments below...

8 comments:

  1. NICE! ; ) But what if you don't like Chicken Pot Pie? My parents used to force me to eat like the frozen dinner ones and to this day I can't do it...what does that mean for me? Hee, hee, hee...

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  2. I think John Lennon said it best.

    “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
    ― John Lennon

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  3. Good one! I saw that one on Facebook, too...who would have thought that Facebook could be part of a spiritual journey... ; )

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  4. Your body is just a vessel for the soul. Is life really over when your body dies? I just got done reading Biocentrism it's a very interesting read, look it over and tell me what you think...YOU being happy is the only thing that matters, your thoughts, dreams and experiences are the only thing you take with you after your body is gone.

    Former RW employee Payden. :)

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  5. I will have to check out that book, Payden! Well, since you are ex-RW, I know you are having no problems with your happiness! HA! But you, and Geoff, bring up another layer to this. If the meaning of life is being happy, how do you definitively achieve that? Does that mean always happy or happy with intermittent trials...hhhhmmmm...THAT may be the next blog post!

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  6. Meaning of life = purpose. I believe we are all here to fill and individual piece of life...kind of like a body. Some of are hands, some are cells, some are eyes, but we all create one working body. None of us are more essential than the other...we ALL create this life and it's "health." So, meaning of life = purpose...and it's all vastly different like you said!

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  7. I REALLY like the body analogy! We all had a different "purpose" in the band. we all have a different "purpose' in this life, just like all of the appemdages on a body have a different function to maintain the health and mobility of that body. ..."crush your enemies..." make it the best "body" and life possible...

    ...Although I'm sure Conan had a totally different and literal meaning for that... ; )

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