What is the meaning of life?

How does one attain happiness and, more importantly, hold onto it?

These are the type of introspective questions that are bound to pop up in one’s head when you forget to bring a book along, your phone is about to die, and the person in the seat next to you has made it clear that they would rather pretend to fall asleep than talk to you. 

As the sun is a sullen red ball about to dip over the horizon, traveling by bus during the afternoon is perhaps the best time to indulge in actions, lazy cousin: introspection.

 Just make sure to fulfil all the requirements mentioned above in addition to a window seat. Because no amount of explanation afterward for staring at the hostess will convince others that you weren’t ogling but were rather deep in thought about life’s bigger questions. 

As the bus meanders through the city and makes its way into the countryside, the sea of humanity starts thinning, and you finally get to see the sky and earth. Off in the distance, you can just make out a weathered old man reclining on a rickety charpoy, puffing on a hookah, surrounded by his meager wheat field. 

A toddler crawls at his feet, probably a grandson unless the old man’s still got it going on, which, if true, hats off to him. There’s a sparkle in the kid’s eye, which you know is probably sunlight from the window you’re looking through, or maybe you’re just projecting. But it seems to you that the kid is excited about all the stories he will listen to over a crackling fire under a starry sky.

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Smoke rises from a mud house in the background. A muscular, younger version of the old man carries a pail of milk to the open kitchen. As the bus passes this idyllic scene, for a brief second, you’re almost parallel to the old man.

You lock eyes.

The old man nods.

You nod back.

You wonder what he sees,

Is his life easier and more comfortable than mine? Not likely.

Is he happier than you? Perhaps, yes.

Would you trade places with him? You doubt it.

What did you just see in those few seconds? Happiness? Maybe, sure, why not?

Contentment? Absolutely.

Perhaps it’s the potholes on the road shaking something loose in your head, but you remember reading about optimistic nihilism and the belief that there’s no inherent purpose or meaning or even value in life. A light bulb turns on in your head, that philosophy class you took to sit behind the pretty girl with the bangs. What did the professor say?

“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” — Joseph Campbell.

And there it is. That quote always reminds you of the movie City Slickers and the scene where Curly (Jack “I crap bigger than you” Palance) reveals the meaning of life to Billy Crystal. 

Happiness is whatever one chooses to make of life. It’s not a path that one stumbles upon or finds through the sayings of a sage. In all probability, these sages lived harder and more troubled lives than we could imagine. You can’t imagine yourself sitting under a tree, going without food, and even worse, without free cable and Netflix for years on end. But these sages did learn to extract joy out of even such bare existence. And while you don’t have to cancel your subscription or find a comfy tree to sit under, there’s hope for you yet. 

Here’s what you realize before the hostess brings you a soda and a pack of chips, and you lose your train of thought in a food-inspired frenzy:

 Happiness isn’t a possession or accomplishment.

All you need to do is be present and content with what you have. It could be cherishing those fifteen early morning minutes spent with your child before heading off for work.

Or putting on a final coating on a painting.

Or putting in the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

The meaning of life is fleeting. It changes as you change. Don’t beat yourself up too much about it. Just find your source of happiness and hold on to it. Life will find its meaning accordingly.