I have had the theme song for Lost stuck in my head ever since the finale aired this past Sunday, and I couldn't figure out why. It's not even one of the happier themes, it's the sad one that plays when ever someone dies. I know I already posted my complaints about the way they ended the show, but there is one tidbit that I would like to talk about that has been festering in the back of my mind. Yes, it is the ever popular meaning of life.

When Richard found out that he had a grey hair, he realized that he was aging again. He also realized that someday he would die. Up until that point he couldn't die, but very much wanted to. He was tormented with the fact that he was immortal - but why? Talk to anyone on the street, ask them if they want to live forever, and the majority will tell you an emphatic 'YES!' If so many people want to live forever, why did Richard see it as a curse.

Now for the meaning of like stuff, here's why Richard was cursed. Life is made up of the experiences and people that we meet along the way. These experiences and people are valuable to us because we know that we will only have so many encounters and so many experiences before we die. If we can have an infinite number of experiences and meet all the people that will ever live, the value of those experiences decreases to zero. Without death, life has no meaning. The meaning in our lives is provided by the value that we get from our experiences, and without death this value is removed.

Sorry to disappoint anyone who might have thought I was going to come up with a single, hard answer for the meaning of life. The fact is that it is different for everyone because everyone has different experiences and derives different value from their lives. So, to finish up I recommend that everyone live their lives as best they can; with joy, sorrow, laughter, and pain. Enjoy the relationships you have along the way, and remember that getting grey hair isn't the end of the world; it's a mile marker on the journey.