Fun sanitized email thread

A fun thread from today . . . .

-----Original Message-----
From: Person 3
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 10:27AM
To: Person 2, Person 1, Person 4, Person 5
Subject: RE: I am requesting your feedback by Monday 4/19/2010

I concede that it is indeed a matter of scale, and that each individual has to scale it to suit their own needs.

Personally, I find it not only liberating, but in fact necessary to extend meaning to cosmic proportions, thereby making my own experiences go to zero in the equation in order to avoid howling madness. After all, depression is a medical term for seeing what is actually there. Look too closely and who knows where it will take you.

I suppose we've put more thought into this than Franklin-Covey originally intended. But thought is not their strong suit: they are business majors.

One thing is certain: Fridays rock.


-----Original Message-----
From: Person 2
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 10:06AM
To: Person 1, Person 3, Person 4, Person 5
Subject: RE: I am requesting your feedback by Monday 4/19/2010

Ok, so I assumed we were talking about an individual's sense of meaning in his/her own life, as opposed to the one, the only, "Meaning of Life" that I agree is a ridiculous concept, so much that it didn't even occur to me.

I do take issue with the pursuit of meaning (lower case!) being a fool's errand. There are those of us that need the crutch of some meaning to function in life. If you like who you are or you can weather life's storms without depression, then sure, you don't need the crutch and I can understand that would be liberating.


-----Original Message-----
From: Person 1
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 9:42AM
To: Person 2, Person 3, Person 4, Person 5
Subject: RE: I am requesting your feedback by Monday 4/19/2010

I took the question with an "or" in mind. And the majority of people do like to think there is meaning to life, and some even try to find it. Whatever works for them.

I have come to the conclusion that there is no real meaning to life. Perhaps a purpose, but no meaning. And liberating is a great way to describe the resulting feeling. Think of yourself as a tree. Who knows, after life has left your body you may be useful.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Person 3 Date: Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 9:35 AM
Subject: RE: I am requesting your feedback by Monday 4/19/2010
To: Person 2, Person 1
Cc: Person 4, Person 5


By your own admission, "Life has meaning" is not a logical progression from "Person 2 finds meaning in life." In addition, does the pursuit of pleasure qualify as having "meaning." If so, on what scale? And if being alive is good, that doesn't make it meaningful. The problem is, the pursuit of pleasure fits in with the enjoyment portion of the question, not the meaning part.

As I just conveyed to Person 1, I would have no problem with the question if it were re-worded to say "Takes time to find enjoyment OR meaning in life." That way one can find enjoyment in life and not necessarily find meaning. Conversely, someone can spend their life trying to find meaning, which is a fool's errand, and not find enjoyment. To suggest that the two are inseparable is pure hubris.

As for your last question, I am perfectly comfortable with the fact that my life nor anyone else's has any meaning whatsoever according to scale. And I don't see why people find this fact depressing either. If anything, it should be liberating.

-----Original Message-----
From: Person 2
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 9:18 AM
To: Person 3, Person 1
Cc: Person 4, Person 5

Subject: RE: I am requesting your feedback by Monday, 4/19/2010

Alright Person 2, lets do this.

"Life has no meaning" is not a logical progression from "Person 2 finds no meaning in life". The meaning in my life is the pursuit of pleasure. Granted, I'm not very good at it, but the pursuit keeps me alive. Why is being alive a good thing? I'm not sure, any help from the peanut gallery?

What is your excuse for continuing to live, if life has no meaning?

-----Original Message-----
From: Person 3
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 6:37
To: Person 1
Cc: Person 2, Person 4, Person 5
Subject: RE: I am requesting your feedback by Monday, 4/19/2010

I have a question on one of the ratings:

74.Takes time to find enjoyment and meaning in life.

How does one take time to find meaning in something that is so blatantly devoid of meaning? Unless, of course, the subject is prone to musing (wasting time).

I guess you can spend your whole life looking for something that isn't there . . .

-----Original Message-----
From: Person 1

Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 4:57 PM
To: Person 2, Person 3, Person 4, Person 5, and other non-consequential Persons
Subject: I am requesting your feedback by Monday, 4/19/2010

All,

Next week I will be participating in FranklinCovey's 7 Habits workshop.

Please help me by taking 10 - 15 minutes to give me your honest assessment of my personal effectiveness. To participate, copy and paste the Web address below into your Web browser and respond to the questionnaire.

Questionnaire Web Address: [WEB LINK DELETED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT]

Thank you for your time.

v/r,
Person 1