Futility

(lyrics from Ecclesiastes 3)

One of the few activities I can do one-armed, besides typing this with one finger, is to read. Today I've revisited wonderful Philip Yancey's brilliant chapter on Ecclesiastes in his book 'The Bible Jesus Read'. In it he highlights the similarity between Existentialism (so popular in the 1960's) and the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes.
This book in the bible and the philosophy of the absurdity of life & general meaninglessness (also the theme of Albert Camus' book 'The Outsider') really spoke to me as a teenager and Ecclesiastes still does, so I felt reassured by Yancey saying it was an issue that would bother all fair-minded people!
He goes on to point out that despair arises out of circumstances of plenty quoting Philip Roth, "In the West anything goes and nothing matters. In the East nothing goes and everything matters." Why do comfort and prosperity not breed satisfaction? Because we discover that they don't give meaning and purpose to our lives. By becoming self-sufficient we take on the burden of God but don't have the key of "WHY?" "What's it for?", "Where's the fulfillment?"
Peggy Lee's 60's hit "Is that all there is?" and sung here beautifully by Bette Midler touches on it

“I don't know Who, or what, put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone, or Something,and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”

Dag Hammarskjold