This morning I somehow ran across an online contest which challenges you to put the meaning of life into a phrase of twenty-five words or less (I gather that the contest is a marketing idea for someone's book, but I tried to ignore that -- see www.themeaningoflife.com)

So I decided to see what I could do in half to hour to forty-five minutes. It turns out that 25 is a very small number of words and that it ws difficult to say anything concrete in that space.  But it was also a good exercise.  Perhaps I ended up finessing the question.  Judge for yourself.  Here is my entry:

The meaning of life emerges from appreciating our place in nature, human history, and local community, and making our actions accordingly as virtuous and enlightened as we are able.

You try it -- it's not that easy.

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