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About this quote

What does it mean?
Daily routines seem meaningless when viewed against mortality. The absurdity of life can feel overwhelming.
In plain terms
Daily routines feel pointless when you know life ends.
What can you take from it?
Acknowledge life's absurdity without losing meaning.

Where it applies

  • existential crises
  • grief
  • questioning life

Putting it to work

  • finding meaning
  • accepting uncertainty
  • reframing

Questions to consider

  • What makes life worth getting up for?
  • How do you deal with life's absurdity?

Another view

Meaning can be created even if life ends.

More from Barbara Kingsolver

  1. What you lose in blindness is the space around you, the place where you are, and without that you might not exist. You could be nowhere at all.

    Permalink to quote #29
  2. What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive.

    Permalink to quote #28
  3. Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work - that goes on, it adds up.

    Permalink to quote #27

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