Happy existence

"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all." Leo Rosten 1908 - 1997

When I first happened upon this quotation, I was a bit flummoxed. Why wouldn't he believe that we should be happy? Then I really read the entire quotation. Useful? I hope I am. Responsible? I believe by being the first to admit I've made a mistake would fall under that. Compassionate? Well, I'll have to let others speak to that quality about me.

But "...to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference..." that is the difficult part. I know I matter to some people in my life and to a few people who have come to know of me through this and other blogs. One of the things I stand for is treating all people with some sort amount of decency. Well, almost all. People who won't or can't fathom that all people, even the ones who don't believe the same things they do, deserve to be treated as an equal won't get much sympathy from me. And as far as making some difference, only time can be the judge of that.