Direct service to others is scarcely the only source of purpose.
The most reliable source of purpose, I'm convinced, is being of service to others – giving more than you take, which turns out not just to make most of us feel good, but also good about ourselves.
In this sense, practicing cultural criticism of the Religion of Thinness is more than an antidote to the persuasive power of our culture's obsession with being slim; it is also an alternative source of purpose and self-definition, one that is far more meaningful than the shallow quest for that slender ideal.
If the role of work in society is to shrink, other sources of purpose and identity will need to grow.
Hubris essentially means that you get stuck in your own bubble, disconnecting yourself from what happens around you and from your inner sources of purpose and self (absencing).
However, trying to secure one's own place in a desirable afterlife isn't necessary for having a sense of purpose in life, or for having a meaningful life, because life without religion can be rich in the non-religious sources of purpose and meaning in life already mentioned.
"If history naturally pushes people toward moral improvement, toward moral truth, and their God, as they conceive their God, grows accordingly, becoming morally richer, then maybe this growth is evidence of some higher purpose, and maybe — conceivably — the source of that purpose is worthy of the name divinity".
While this idea still seems true, bone marrow has begun to emerge as a source of general purpose stem cells that work to repair damage wherever it occurs.
Clamour, melody, dissonance, harmony; when it is fashioned by man with specific tools, when it invades man's time, when it becomes sound, noise is the source of the purpose and power, of the dream – music".
President Kennedy expressed in 1960 his belief in "human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, and the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas".
Business - what we create, where we work, where we shop, what we buy, who we invest in - has become a source of identity, purpose, and power.
