Fearing insignificance.
Contemplating on the things I fear the most from life, there were some perhaps surprising omissions. I’m neither afraid of being unemployed, old, alone; my greatest fear is insignificance. Despite this fear, I remain under no illusion that in the grand scheme of things, we have never been significant. To what end significance relates to us as part of the human psyche remains to be understood but no doubt ties us with needs to invoke metaphorical gods and demons, both as anchors to feel we belong to something other than randomness, and to create words to describe things we don’t have language for.
Travel continues to lift some of this self-obsessed burden, revealing time after time that significance in the eyes of others is not a necessity. What is important, is living life significantly for yourself. When you move with purpose and meaning, significance becomes a pleasing by-product of living a wonderful and fulfilling life.
