Message In A Bottle (or Fortune Cookie)

(I guarantee you the message in MY bottle has a Nietzsche quote on it LOL)

At times it seems that the whole of my existence can be compared to a message in a bottle drifting out into a vastly infinite ocean in an endless wavy pattern of peaks and valleys. My life is the bottle and I am the unread message contained within. The paradox is that although the bottle floats around arbitrarily if one's life lacks a meaningful objective, it's the point when we've acheived our objectives that we are once again left in the emptiness of being without meaning or purpose. "He who has a strong enough 'why' can bear almost any 'how'" (Nietzsche) but without any 'why' at all we become submerged in the depths of nothingness. Contrary to what we believe, life doesn't begin when we have acheived, obtained or succeeded. It seems we always think that life will be better "once I have this" or "when I get that" or "if I do this" and while we wait for these things to occur life and time merely drift by while we stare blindly into oblivion, waiting for the end.

Life is the actual process of travelling to our metaphorical 'farther shores.' It is not the arrival itself. It's all in the 'getting there'. It's the turbulence upon which we ride that plays the biggest role in defining our characters and personalities, and that leaves the strongest and most memorable impressions, but its significance might be missed if one is continually focused on the end result. Once we have acheived something or perhaps succeeded in obtaining a final end, it only leaves us in the emptiness and the birth pains of the beginning once again, the point at which we must ask 'what is my purpose' or 'what now?' So, if birth is the beginning of the potentials of purpose, and the meaning of life is in the fight to bring about the completion or finality of a purpose, then it follows that the moment of acheivement or success is a death of sorts. Perhaps this is precisely what Nietzsche meant when he said that "one must die several times while one is still alive." Life is not merely reaching farther shores, but is the voyage itself; the expedition of our individual bottles over boundless unknown waters.

This is not to say that goals and dreams are 'bad', because they are rather a neccesity, but that it's best 1) to not become too attached to highly specific and conceptualized outcomes of how you think your life should be or develop into, 2) to be aware of the importance and significance of the journey itself and 3) to be imaginative and adaptable enough to be able to re-embark on uncertain and sometimes seemingly unsafe journeys when your existence becomes drained of vitality.

What do you think?

SIDE NOTE: I've had this post as a draft for several days now so I could finalize my thoughts on it. Last night, Chris took Jordan and I out for dinner, and at the end of the meal Jordan grabbed a couple handfuls (LOL) of fortune cookies for us. We each opened two. I was slightly annoyed at the fact that both of mine said the same rather dumb thing:


Later on, as Jordan and I were watching movies, he asked if I wanted another fortune cookie and I hesitantly said yes, half thinking that I'd just pull out the same 'fortune.' But instead I got this:

And THAT'S synchronously close to what I was hoping to convey with this post. NICE.