Peter Barnum
Toastmasters CC#3: The Meaning of Life

As you all probably remember, a few weeks ago we had a table topics 
competition, where each participant was asked “what is the meaning of 
life?”  There were a lot of good answers, and I recall that I mumbled 
something about helping people.  Thinking back on this, I realized that 
although this is what I think, I didn’t really explain as well as the 
idea deserves.  And given how important it is, I mean, what could matter 
more than the purpose behind life, it seemed like a good idea to talk a 
bit longer on the subject.  This speech is titled “The Meaning of Life,” 
but probably should be subtitled “How I think you should live your 
life.”  If you disagree, maybe next week, you can tell me how I should 
live my life, and then we can have a lively discussion.
  
Lots of famous speakers and authors have told us that the point of life 
is to help people, but I think the son of the author, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., 
put it the best.  As written by Vonnegut in at least a couple of his 
books, his son said “We are here to help each other get through this 
thing, whatever it is.”  I think he really said it perfectly.  No one 
really knows what life is, and I’m suspicious of people who say they do.  
Still, the least we can do is try to make life better and happier for 
others.  It’s often much easier to make others happy compared to 
ourselves, and although it sounds trite, if everyone is doing it, it will 
come right back to us.  

When most people think of how to be helpful, they think of going out and 
volunteering for a good cause.  Personally, I’ve had several experiences 
with charity work.  My favorite two were at the Easter Seals of 
Metropolitan Chicago and at the Animal Rescue League right here in 
Pittsburgh.  Now if you know the Easter Seals, you know that they usually 
work with children, but this particular center focused on disabled 
adults.  There were programs there to teach them basic job skills, such 
as how to use computers.  Sometimes I would help give instructions, other 
times I would just carry things around for people.  It was a great place 
to be helpful, because although they couldn’t do certain tasks on their 
own, often each person would only need a little bit of specific help and 
so I was able to facilitate for a big group of people at the same time.

On the other hand, working one-on-one can be good too.  I’ve spent a lot 
of time walking dogs at the Animal Rescue league in East Liberty.  Now, 
I’m not going to argue about animal intellect right now, although that’s 
something to think about too.  And in any case, the same principles 
apply.  The dogs are stuck in cages all day, and it’s really nice to be 
able to take them out to stretch their legs.  Even if they don’t 
understand what I’m doing for them, I’m happy that I can make their day 
better.

It’s great to go out specifically to volunteer, but unless you don’t 
sleep, or are independently wealthy, you’re going to be spending most of 
your time not doing explicit volunteer work.  But maybe it is possible to 
take that same feeling of altruism and bring it into our daily lives.  
When we are asked for a favor, which we can look on as an opportunity to 
do what we should be doing and want to be doing anyway.  There are a 
million little opportunities to make the world a better place.  Sometimes 
a kind word is great when we normally would just be silent.  Sometimes 
silence is ideal when we would rather yell back a hostile coworker.

Given that I’ve suggested that the purpose of life is to help other 
people and I’ve mentioned a variety of different ways to be helpful, you 
may be thinking that I’m trying to imply that you should devote your 
entire life to service.  Although it would be great if you did, I think 
is unrealistic.  Instead, what I do suggest is to always try to improve.  
Some days it may not be much.  It may be just making a conscious effort 
to be a little more understanding at work.  Suppose one of your 
co-workers is being grumpy.  Instead of being grumpy back, try to be 
understanding and realize that they are having a hard day.  I know this 
can be difficult, especially with people show seem to just be angry all 
the time, but it’s something to strive for.  

Some days, a kind word is all you can give, but other days you may feel 
extra positive, and really feel like you can make a difference.  Spending 
one of those days walking to raise money, or tutoring, or helping a 
friend paint their house, will make you look back with pride.  Searching 
for “volunteer activities” online will bring up hundreds of ideas.  
Inviting a friend along can make it a fun outing.  And these are the days 
that stay with us forever.

In conclusion, I think that the meaning of life is simply to make it 
better for other people.  This may be through volunteer work or simply by 
trying to be more thoughtful people in our daily lives.  And it’s 
actually not that hard.  On our most unhappy days, it may be impossible 
to cheer ourselves up.  But sometimes spending just a few minutes can 
make someone else beam for the rest of the day.