The Meaning of "Lost"

In the real world, we continually seek to more fully know the meaning of life, the meaning of it all. And yet, as much as we want to know the fullness and completeness of that meaning, as much as we want all the storylines to be tidily wrapped up, at the same time we don't want that wonderful process of seeking to end. We don't want the discovery to end. We don't want the possibilities to run out.

Perhaps when Lost ends I will experience some grand and profound epiphany, and wander around for a while thinking to myself "Wow. Now I get it." I remember having that kind of satisfying sense of enlightenment after finishing Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, suddenly realizing that I understood the nature of redemption on a whole new level. Truly great stories will do that to you.

I will be disappointed if Lost fails to produce that same kind of profound "aha" experience. However, when it does, when the Grand Answer is made clear, the glorious mystery will necessarily be over. The open-ended possibilities will vanish. The opportunities for speculating about various "what-if" scenarios and possible relationships will end.

And yet, happily, life itself will go on. And though we will fully know the meaning of Lost, we still will not fully know the meaning of life. There will always be more mystery, more questions that cannot be answered. And that is truly a blessing, as the impending series finale of Lost helps us to realize.

We search and struggle to know the meaning of life, and yet no matter how close we come, no matter what level of enlightenment we attain, there is always more to discover. In fact, it is the very act of discovery that opens the door to more discovery. All that effort, all that thought and exploration, all that questioning and speculation, is not merely in search of meaning. It ends up actually creating meaning. And so the question becomes this: Is the meaning of life something outside of us that we must strive to attain, or is it whatever we create through living?

It just might be that the meaning of life is that we don't know the meaning, and in that unknowing we're free and able to explore truly endless possibilities. So, the meaning of life . . . is to give life meaning.

And realizing that, perhaps my long-anticipated "aha" moment from Lost has already arrived.

Since 1995, Ralph Marston has written and published The Daily Motivator, one of the web's most popular and enduring places for daily inspiration. In that time, he has published more than 4,500 original daily motivational messages, as well as books, audio programs, and inspiring video presentations.