[snip]

What IS the point of it all? Particularly if you don't believe in or are skeptical of an afterlife? I don't really know for sure but for me, at least right now, it's learning about me, how my mind and brain work, and to try to make some contribution to this world. I don't have kids to leave behind and when I eventually leave this world, I want someone to notice and care. If I'm only going to be dirt, why does that matter? I'm not sure, maybe it's just ego. But it does matter to me. You can search inside yourself and find what matters to you, then hold to it hard as you can in the down times, even when you don't really believe it in the down times...maybe that will help.