It must be said before I delve into the general novel that will be this blog posting that I am often quite cruel to customers when they approach me. I deliver a brilliant polite performance while my mind reels with rather horrible scenarios that would all surely end in my imminent unemployment. This does not mean that I hate those guests who visit my work place merely that I am inwardly unkind to those who ask very, very asinine questions.

I imagine most of us have gone through our fair share of customer service positions while flitting about the job market. The customers are the very driving force of any enterprise, but it must be admitted that they are quite frustrating. I spend my just above minimum wage hours at the Florida Aquarium which is nestled in the centre of downtown Tampa.

Upon donning my quite fashionable blue polo shirt and khaki shorts I am transformed into an ambassador of the aquarium. Many guests are under the impression that any person who is emblazoned with the Florida Aquarium logo must be a marine biologist, soothsayer, god/goddess, and an animal psychologist. On the rare occasion I am believed to be a knowledgeable economist, healer and blacksmith. It would happen that this morning I was expected to assume the role of philosopher.

As with most mornings I was groggy and dutifully keeping my post at the sting ray touch tank. A few guests had approached the tank only to retreat to some other corner of the aquarium when an elderly couple entered my domain. I was asked a medley of the usual questions: will they bite or sting me, may we touch, and are these the sting rays that killed Steve Irwin? I was answering these questions while tripping over my own tongue a bit; I was yet to be fully awake. I was rather floored when the gentleman asked me, “What is their purpose in life?”

Without a doubt I stammered here and there, wracking my brain for an answer to this seemingly ridiculous question. I jumbled together in a semi-understandable statement a notion referencing to the food chain and the sting ray’s effect upon the natural Florida environment, blah, blah, blah. It was not until the couple thanked me and moved on that I was left to reflect upon his question.

It is every so often that one questions their purpose in life or questions the purpose of other people, animals or even inanimate objects. What is this fixation on a purpose or a destiny? Must it be that as Homo sapiens sapiens we must have some goal to reach? Breathing each breath just to refill the lungs is simply not enough to usher us further into life?

The greatest purpose in life is simply to live. Why must we attach so much baggage to an overwhelmingly uncomplicated experience like existence? There seems to be such a strong need to apply a reason behind life. Why do we live? What is our purpose? I am left wondering why one must have an answer.

There is no greater experience then to live, and I believe we must cherish our long yet logistically short period on the planet. As young progressives we are striving for change that lasts, some small piece of our passion and efforts that will carry on through time. Our sharp minds allow us the advantage to ponder purposes and destinies, yet in those thoughts we lose grasp of the here and now. With the work we do we strive for a ripple that begins now and extends into the future. Setting our minds only on the future rips away our present for as each moment passes we are in the past. It does nothing for a person to live between the past and the future.

I do not believe that any one person has a destined path to follow. I am under the impression that we have many possibilities and in those we hope to believe that there is one single path that will unfold before us as the right one. As one species humans are intertwined, so the path of one crosses the path of all. The purpose of one is the purpose of all.

In the hustle and grind of living I think we forget to pause and sincerely live. The earth will go on after we’ve taken our personal dirt naps. I know I get caught up in the daily climb toward my grand supposed purpose and lose track of purely living. What is my purpose in life? It is to live and I wish to appreciate every miserable, elated, indolent, and swift moment of it.