The Unanswerable Quesion: What is Best in Life?

What is best in life? The fictional barbarian, Conan, would answer that question with something about "crushing your enemies" but I hope that this is not what most people are after in the real world. Aside from seeking bloody revenge against the snake wizard who slaughtered our families (I really want to re-watch Conan the Barbarian now), what brings us the joy which we all seem to seek? As the title suggests, I don't believe that this question can be answered but is it even necessary to do so in order to find peace of mind and happiness? We would say that a thing is the best because it does something for us. It makes us feel better than we felt without that thing. For me, it seems like the far more productive question to ask is the following: Why do we think that a thing is best? I say this because that question's answer actually brings a new understanding about the self and its needs which will leave us better equipped to achieve a state of satisfaction.

These "bests" in life can make us feel good but that makes them the means and not the end in our pursuit. When we do or have one of these "best" things, it makes us feel a certain way and that feeling is what makes the thing seem good. When Conan kills the snake wizard, he has a sense of accomplishment and vindication and that is what he gets out of crushing his enemies. Hopefully, your favorite feelings don't require beheading James Earl Jones but the concept is the same. One only needs to recognize what about his or her "best" thing brings the feeling of joy. I like to write and I have always liked games or sports that involve taking a thing and throwing it or rolling it or whatever at another thing. Those seem like to very unrelated interests and they are but they both scratch the same itch. Specifically, they are both expressions of a sort of agency in which I can observe my action and see its effect. When I write, I see that there is a thing that did not exist before but exists now. When I throw a dart (or whatever) at a target I see that I used my agency to move tan object over a distance and placed it where I wanted it to be. Your best things are, doubtlessly, different than mine but if you can find the root of what makes you like them, you will have learned something important about yourself.

Once one finds the source of his or her enjoyment of a thing, he or she can apply that knowledge to his or her life. To use myself as an example, I recognized that I value agency so I can seek out things that express or increase it. In addition, to writing and the activities that I already enjoyed I now advocate for causes that aim to give more agency to people and against the ones that try to take it away, which is satisfying. You can do the same when you stop asking what is best and start asking why you think it is best.

Peace.

The images in this post were sourced from the free image website, unsplash.com.