I am a cosmic pessimist, and you should be one too

Harry has good days and bad days.

On good days, he is a three-and-a-half-year-old boy with an infectious laugh and an insatiable curiosity. But even on these days, his father seems weighed down, a perpetual sadness shadowing his smiles.

The reason is heartbreaking — Harry has cancer, and his father knows his son’s time is limited.

Harry’s father spends countless nights questioning the universe. Why Harry? Why does his innocent son have to suffer? He searches for a cosmic reason, a grand purpose behind the pain. This quest for meaning, however, leaves him feeling more desolate and powerless.

Herein lies the crux of our human experience — the desperate search for meaning in an indifferent universe.

Harry’s father imagines a world without cancer, providing an immediate sense of comfort. The feeling quickly dissipates, though, as he realizes that world holds no meaning either. Harry faces the same fate regardless.

Most people live in the father’s fantasy world only to take life for granted. With the end a mere abstraction, complacency sets in.

No. That is no life for Harry either.

This epiphany changes everything. It brings a clarity and urgency that might not have existed if he had…