The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water,
but a man of understanding will draw it out.
Proverbs 20:5 (ESV)
This proverb explains why most people don’t understand why they are alive.
Life is certainly a riddle.
Here is the problem. We can choose to live the unexamined life, one disconnected to our deep water supply, but if we do then we are to be as pitied as Macbeth. At the end of the play when he discovers his lust for power has destroyed everything he aspired to control, he delivers one of the most famous soliloquies in all of Shakespeare.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5
There is a reason why Shakespeare used to be taught in high schools and universities across the land.