Age 42 - understand the meaning of life and the universe and everything

Age 42 - understand life, the universe and everything

In honor of my birthday, I opened a book by Douglas Adams, a writer who tells the story of a distant galaxy that decided to solve once and for all the great riddle of life, and the universe and everything. So they built a huge huge computer, and fed into it all the knowledge they had about life, and the universe and everything, and then The computer started working, and after years the computer announced that the calculations were finished and that it had an answer.

And the whole galaxy made a holiday in honor of the event, and they did a big ceremony, and at its culmination the chief engineer came to the computer, and asked him if he had an answer to the great riddle of life and the universe and everything.

And the computer said the answer was ready

And the whole galaxy held its breath

Then the computer announced that the answer was…

drums…

42!

And since then, the number 42 has symbolized for nerds and geeks an answer to the question of life and the universe and everything. 

And if you type '42' into the Google search engine, which itself is somewhat similar to that computer, then it will direct you to 'the answer to the riddle of life and the universe and everything'. (By the way, the galaxy was so shocked that they decided to build an even bigger computer to understand the question....)

So today, July 13th, I'm 42 years old, which is supposed to be the time in life when you're already an adult, and you have answers to, well, all the questions of life and the universe and everything.

And if you came to this part expecting my own insight into the meaning of life and the universe, etc., then you probably didn't really understand the story, but I'll try to formulate one (because my job is to teach people to sound smart even when you don't know what you're talking about):

What I do have is an understanding that there is no such thing as 'the answer to the riddle of life and the universe and everything'.
Because actually there is not one puzzle. It's a collection of small questions, some of which have a known answer, some of which have an as yet unknown answer, and some of which will probably never have an answer.

And that's the funny part, that as soon as you think that somewhere there is that cosmic, spiritual, great answer - you end up finding out that you're stuck with something like '42'

What I discovered is that the question is not whether you already have an answer.
But are you progressing towards understanding it.
Do you know a little more every day than you did yesterday, and do you have a little more every day than yesterday - more knowledge and experiences, more friends and acquaintances and loved ones, more tangible and intangible possessions.

So here is the spiritual message I want to convey -

Don't feel bad that you don't know everything. It's okay not to know everything, but it's worth striving to know more.