“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!”

In the book “Winesburg, Ohio”, a collection of short stories published in 1919, author Sherwood Anderson reveals the individual struggles of  the inhabitants of a small Ohio town as they try to reconcile their day to day lives with their roles in the community and their ambitions for the future.

The reader gradually discovers how the lives of each of the inhabitants intersect with one another and by the end of the book Anderson has painted a masterful portrait of the life of an alternating complex, lonely, joyful and strange American town.

While exposing the innermost thoughts of the character George Willard, a young man working as the town’s newspaper reporter, Anderson writes a very insightful commentary about the inner workings of a young mind as it begins to transition into manhood.

“George Willard, the Ohio village boy, was fast growing into manhood and new thoughts were coming into his mind… The mood that had taken possession of him was a thing known to men and unknown to boys.

There is a time in the life of every boy when he for the first time takes the backward view of life. Perhaps that is the moment when he crosses the line into manhood. The boy is walking the street of his town. He is thinking of the future and of the figure he will cut in the world. Ambitions and regrets awake within him. Suddenly something happens, he stops under a tree and waits as for a voice calling his name.

Ghosts of old things creep into his consciousness; the voices outside of himself whisper a message concerning the limitations of life. From being quite sure of himself and his future he becomes not at all sure.

If he be an imaginative boy a door is torn open and for the first time he looks out upon the world, seeing, as though they marched in procession before him, the countless figures of men who before his time have come out of nothingness into the world, lived their lives and again disappeared into nothingness. The sadness of sophistication has come to the boy.

With a little gasp he sees himself as merely a leaf blown by the wind through the streets of his village. He knows that in spite of all the stout talk of his fellows he must live and die in uncertainty, a thing blown by the winds, a thing destined like corn to wilt in the sun.

He shivers and looks eagerly about. The years he has lived seem but a moment, a breathing space in the long march of humanity. Already he hears death calling. With all his heart he wants to come close to some other human, touch someone with his hands, be touched by the hand of another… He wants most of all understanding.“

Anderson’s striking observation struck a chord of recognition with me because I can remember when this transition happened in my life. It was after I ventured off to college, leaving behind the comfort of my own small town and the loving protection of my parents. It was then that I began to study and think about all the great thinkers, theologians and scholars that came before me and how their lives had contributed to human progress.

Like the character George Willard, I began to think backward for the first time in my life. I realized that all of those great men and women who inspired us with their accomplishments were now gone – countless figures who came out of nothingness into the world, lived their lives and again disappeared into nothingness. The limitations of life began to become startlingly clear.

My professor of Medieval Literature studies was especially influential and enthusiastic about exposing me to the different philosophies and spiritual themes behind the great works of the middle ages – and describing how those writers grappled with trying to understand the meaning of life and their place in it.

He shared the despair felt by the pious man Geoffrey Chaucer as he considered his great work The Canterbury Tales; recognizing his book was a masterpiece, but also acknowledging that the work fell short and was ultimately meaningless; saying “What does it matter in the face of eternity“.

Shakespeare also brought readers face to face with the deepest questions about the pain and emptiness of life in Macbeth describing our existence as meaningless; “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing”.

The idea of the meaningless of life was a theme Solomon used in the Book of Ecclesiastes. He wrote “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity“. The word vanity as used by Solomon does not represent pride or vainglory. The Hebrew meaning for the word “Vanity” translates to vapor or breath, so Solomon was really trying to convey that all things are like a breath – short, impermanent and passing.

Unlike most other books in the Bible which teach about the meaning of life, Solomon in Ecclesiastes instead points a finger at the whole world and declares it meaningless. The world has no satisfaction in the end and all our accomplishments will be forgotten. He shares the same sentiment that his father before him, King David, expressed in Psalm 103:

“The life of mortals is like grass,
  they flourish like a flower of the field;
  the wind blows over it and it is gone,
  and its place remembers it no more.”

Solomon presents us with the problem of what it means to be human. We search high and low for answers to a gnawing fear inside us that we’re alone, that all of life is useless and we’ll just end up six feet under ground with no one to remember us. Solomon stares this fear in the face, offering up the most despairing of answers—there is no answer:

“I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity, and vexation of spirit.“ – Ecclesiastes 1:14

The effect all this deep questioning had on that young college kid coming of age was bracing. It did not cause me to despair because my faith and my upbringing provided me with an innate certainty that life does have meaning and purpose. But it did change my outlook on life in a profound way.

It made me realize that life was short and that no one is indispensable. It motivated me to put away childish things, focus on things of substance and appreciate each day. It reminded me to avoid selfishness knowing that whatever I accomplished or how much wealth I accumulated, it would die with me.

The biggest effect this change of thinking had on me, however, was the same one it had on George Willard. It made me want with all my heart to come close to some other human, to touch someone with my hands, to be touched by the hand of another. To find understanding with another soul. I reasoned that if you mean something to someone, and someone means something to you, then life can never be meaningless.

I was blessed to find that someone in College, that understanding with another human that brought life wonderful purpose and meaning; and even though that relationship was finite, as all relationships must be, the good news is that there are an unlimited number of  humans out there looking for understanding and love.

My advice is to venture out and mean something to someone – and in the end, your life will have meaning.