The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness

It’s like alcohol or recreational drugs, which people often abuse when what they really want in life—hope, opportunity, love—is absent, but which makes their problem worse. Of the different types of love, the Greeks thought that mutual eros had the special property of igniting a mysterious process. This can render otherwise pragmatic individuals helpless in the face of their desire. In desperation, Levin finally gave up his frantic, worldly search and, as a last resort, turned simply to living his ordinary life day to day.