 When it comes to meaningful life finding meaning in life one of the themes that keeps coming back is this idea of connecting to something bigger plugging in to something that is bigger than ourselves and our everyday lives and So this could be of course family community some sense of humanity being plugged into some kind of a cause or a mission something that transcends ourselves that takes us out of a focus on our personal lives our individual lives and shifts our attention and focus on to something that is bigger something that is Beyond our own life and it seems like this has an effect of Maybe you could even say making us feel immortal Making us feel like we're past the limits of our own lives Which will inevitably end because we feel this connection with the bigger thing So we all find different ways to do this and some combination of them No, it could even be things like sports where we become attached to a particular team and then their fortunes become our fortunes and In my case I find one thing that I tend to is that because I love history and I always found it endlessly fascinating and so it always seemed like No matter what happens in my own life as long as I can Just be a witness to history just observe it as it's happening and Just just the curiosity to know how history will unfold in the upcoming years like that in itself is Reason enough for me to enjoy being alive because it's just so interesting after looking at all the history That's led up to this point in time, you know, where will things go next? You know, it's like watching this this unfolding story or really a complex of endless stories all mixed together That is to me alone enough to just like if I was just to like watch the world Watch the world unfold Even if nothing's happening in my life now, of course, that does sound pretty sad If really nothing's going on in my life, and I'm just watching the world, but there's a part of me that really I think would be satisfied by that Obviously, I want more from my life than simply being a spectator But I do find I have this this tendency so of course this happened when Well, or whenever the news is Particularly significant it really can can pull me in like the news is like a very very zoomed in picture of history where you only get these very Surface events and you never really get deep into the story Watching too much news is like just a story where you get some tiny update and then nothing and then another tiny update and nothing and Without really, you know going deep into the unfolding story but When more significant events are happening then the news is something that Really can pull me in it happened when COVID first Broke out that was I was you know shocked by the news of the sudden Worldwide lockdowns and you know then I saw I was just plugged in like wow, what's gonna happen and So much of my focus was on it the Russian invasion of Ukraine is now really the most shocking news story that I've experienced since that time and so It puts me in this state of like really being plugged into the news and You can see I have my my Kiev cameras there on the TV And you know this feeling like wow history is unfolding. I'm seeing historical event That's really changing right now the state of history is really you know taking a new step into a new chapter and so it renews that sense that I can Plug myself into the sense of unfolding history. I can plug myself into This bigger thing So I can feel this effect of how It I want to get plugged into it But then on the other hand it also has very strong diminishing returns and limitations because of course, you know, it's very interesting to keep on top of what's happening and Look into some of these things and it's interesting to research them But it's only so far it goes There's only so much that it can do because in the end I am If I'm only going to be a spectator It's not going to really It's not going to be something that I can be completely absorbed into and it's the same with sports I can get very excited about a particular team's fortunes but The closer that gets to becoming central in my life Which it even sounds pretty sad to think of you know sports being a central to a life It can't be because I cannot take any action to do anything about it it's perhaps more debatable in the case of history and the news because We could there's nothing to say that I Couldn't somehow be a participant in the history and maybe that's something that We are called to do in some way or some of us are called to do if I were to go down that hole even further I could perhaps put even more of my energy and focus into it But although I can say that's possible. I don't feel like that that is something that really works not for everybody not in most situations Because we can't make the focus of our lives something external to ourselves we have to Work with our own lives and work with the area that we have control over We can't be focused too much on being spectators Otherwise because if we do there's simply not enough that we can do even if we can have some kind of peripheral effect on Some kind of external event We can't make that our focus because we're just stuck in this passive position of just Watching and hoping one way or the other. You know, we can take steps to influence things But what we ultimately have control over is ourselves So anyway, all of this is to say that I've I've experienced this sense of that this pull to be drawn in to the world of news to the news hole of Just, you know obsessively Following all these world events But at the same time reminded that it's ultimately only my own life that I can control and ultimately The meaning of my life Cannot be found in some kind of external broader event at least not directly for me But I'd be curious to hear what you think I think there is a case to be made I think for many people possibly this is a way to find meaning That we can be fully dedicated to a cause to so or some kind of world event So I'd be curious to see what you think about this idea of being absorbed into the news absorbed into history