As an atheist, I do not believe my presence here is especially magical or has any meaning beyond what it means to me. But something another atheist said to me this week I found a little confronting, yet thought provoking. This friend described himself as an antinatalist. For those who, like me have probably never heard of this concept it is the idea that life = suffering and that none of us have the choice to be brought into life and that doing so is to create suffering. Antinatalists chose not to bring life into the world because existence is ultimately futile. We will all die and all we are doing in the meantime is waiting it out. Antinatalists though are not necessarily hopeless people. I kind of compared it to veganism in that they are choosing not to add to the pain of another. I'll let you go google this for yourself.
This discussion did get me thinking about why I had children and what is there to love about life. It can get pretty tough sometimes, very boring a lot of the time but there are moments when I am in awe of the existence of my life. When I see a beautiful sunset, or hold a newborn baby, it's life full of such potential, the pleasure of sex, the smell of petrichor, that moment at the end of a brilliant book where you close it and just say a quiet 'Wow' to yourself. Tiny moments, but they are the ones that make it all worth the effort.
I shall end today's blog with a quote from my favourite person, the incredible Mr Tim Minchin
"There is only one thing to do with this empty existence, and that is fill it. Not Fillet, Fill. It. And in my opinion (until I change it) life is best filled by learning as much as you can about as much as you can, taking pride in whatever you are doing, having compassion, sharing ideas, running, being enthusiastic, and then there love and travel and wine and sex and art and kids and giving and mountain. Climbing..but you know all that already"
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