Sorry Camus, life is not meaningless

Currently, I am reading Albert Camus's The Stranger for my English choice novel unit. While reading this book, the message that the author tries to convey to the reader is quite clear: our universe is irrational, meaning, some events happen for no reason, and there is no point to finding rationality. This is derived from existentialism, the philosophical theory that emphasizes the existence of each individual as a way humans find themselves in the world. To my understanding, it stresses the fact that people choose their meaning in life through things that they have lived through, beliefs, and outlook. In Camus's book, the term existentialism refers to the idea that life has no meaning, and there is no rational order of events. I will discuss this book more in depth in a later post, but what I wanted to share was a TED talk I came across through my curiosity that stemmed from this book. Surely, Camus had a negative outlook on life, as evidenced by his criticizing of society for condemning a person who had a revelation about life, a mere hero. I must say, I am easily persuaded, but Camus did not sell me on this point: life is not meaningless. I refuse to accept that. So, instead, I questioned myself: what is the purpose of life? For those of you that do not know, in my free time I like to watch TED talks (because after all, those ideas are worth spreading, right? So might as well do humanity a favor an watch them). Impulsively, I typed the phrase, "meaning to life." I was determined to learn something. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. I found a talk by

Emily Esfahani Smith, titled "There's more to life than being happy" over the meaning of life. She asserts that having a meaning to life gives you something to hold on to during critical times in one's life. Specifically, she notes that there are four pillars in finding meaning in one's life: belonging, the bonds formed between family and friends, purpose, which signifies the strengths that you use to serve others, transcendence, meaning the moment when the sense of self fades away, and story-telling, which is the story you create for yourself, which can be altered and interpreted differently. Smith advocates a call to action for society to build these pillars for people to live as their best selves. I highly recommend watching this video, it brought me tears. I feel like after every TED talk I watch I think it is the best video I've seen. Below is the link to this life-changing video:

https://www.ted.com/talks/emily_esfahani_smith_there_s_more_to_life_than_being_happy