When you scale a rock face, and make it to the top, there’s nothing there. Lionel Terray, the great French climber called this phenomena 'The conquistadors of the useless.' Sure, the outcome is useless, but it’s the journey that makes it all worthwhile. Sometimes we forget that.
The meaning of life has been a subject discussed by humankind for countless generations: “why are we here?” “what is life all about?” “what is the point of existence?”. And answers range from achieving pure bliss, to 42. But what if there is no true meaning?
As in rock climbing, you get to the end of your life and face “the conquistadors of the useless”, death, but does that mean you are not to live it? Does one simply not swim because there is no treasure chest
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Human kind’s biggest fault is that we need purpose. Every time you ask someone ‘why’ he or she is doing something or ‘why’ they even care, it is because you need that sense of purpose, and without it its hard to maintain sanity. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle depicted this through his famous series of short stories revolving around Detective Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock, the main protagonist, and Professor James Moriarty, one of the main antagonists, were both incredibly brilliant and lived with the understanding that life held no predetermined purpose. Sherlock created his own purpose in solving mysteries, whereas Moriarty failed to create a solid purpose and would be said to have gone “insane”.
As a teenager, my purpose changes day to day. Sometimes I just want to fit in, or to get good grades, or to impress others with my speech, but these are not sustainable purposes. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they begin to accept “the conquistadors of the useless”, but rarely do we ever really accept it. We just fight it and avoid it with an even more sustainable purpose, one that can never truly be fulfilled. And there is not a thing wrong with that.
There’s nothing waiting for me at the top, so I’ll just climb a more challenging rock face. Why? Because it gives me purpose. But why do I want purpose? Because it makes me happy. Using that statement many conclude happiness to be the meaning of life.
What must have the native peoples, such as the Incas and Aztecs, thought when they saw white men arriving onto their land aboard massive ships? The Spanish conquistadores conquered many regions in the Americas for Spain. In the Spanish language, ?Conquista? means to conquer or a conquest, and ?Conquistadores? is referring to the conquerors, specifically from Spain. Latin America richness in culture and history is strongly associated with this Spanish presence (Davies 172). The Spanish conquistadores changed the Latin American people?s lives significantly, and the impact they left can still be appreciated today. Their influence has produced culturally benefitting results.
"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive...." Joseph Campbell made this comment on the search for meaning common to every man's life. His statement implies that what we seem bent on finding is that higher spark for which we would all be willing to live or die; we look for some key equation through which we might tie all of the experiences of our life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. He states, however, that we will never find some great
How can a couple of people thrive on a island with no water or no food, just some skills of the wilderness? In the spring spring of the year 1527 five spanish ships left the docks of seville and began their journey to the New World. The leader of this expedition was named Panfilo de Narvaez, he was a conquistador who had a dream of establishing settlements along the coast of the gulf of mexico. The five ships were pushed off course by the strong waves of the ocean. But someone named Cabeza de Vaca and a couple of other crew members made it to an island, but they weren't the only ones there. Cabeza de Vaca survived on the island because Cabeza had incredible survival skills, Cabeza had success as a healer, and Cabeza had respect for the Native Americans he met.
Every artist's dream is to create something that leaves a lasting impression. The Last Conquistador follows the story of a sculptor who does exactly that. John Houser spent nearly a decade painstakingly crafted a 34-foot tall equestrian statue featuring the infamous Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate y Salazar. Following in the footsteps of his father who assisted in the carving of Mount Rushmore, Houser's fantasy of leaving his mark in one of the largest bronze equestrian statues in the world finally became a reality (Valadez). However, what an artist attempts to express and what message is truly received may not be one and the same. While the Hispanic elite of El Paso praised (and funded) the magnificent piece, the Acoma were horrified by the towering symbol of oppression and genocide looming overhead. This film not only provides a window into the conflict and controversy surrounding Houser's work, but also showcases several aspects of Texas political culture and highlights the dismissive attitude toward Native American culture that is still prevalent today.
But, as philosopher Tom Nagel has argued, this is not the sense of “the meaning of life” people are usually interested in. Suppose an alien species created human life in order to provide them with a future food supply. Then the purpose of human life is to be food for aliens. That would be the meaning of life, if we take
The history of potatoes started in South America spreading to Europe and adopted by different cultures around the word. It grew wild at the Andes Mountains. The Native Americans began cultivating it, and it became part of their believes. The conquistadors came and took it to Europe. It did not have a great impact at the beginning but as the time pass by it gain popularity. Ireland was one of the first countries to adopt it as a main product of their which later hurt them badly later on. During the later years other countries stated adopting and making it part of their culture, since it was cheap to grow.
The diverse ways writers answer this question stems from their worldview. For the atheist Samuel Beckett, there was no meaning to life. He narrated a story of two babbling idiots who he believed were foolish to wait around for Godot. His pointless view of life manifests in the way he creates his characters: they are characters who do not go and do anything.
The Conquest of Mexico and the conversion of the peoples of New Spain can and should be included among the histories of the world, not only because it was well done but because it was very great. . . . Long live, then, the name and memory of him [Cortés] who conquered so vast a land, converted such a multitude of men, cast down so many men, cast down so many men, cast down so many idols, and put an end to so much sacrifice and the eating of human flesh! —Francisco López de Gómara (1552)
1540-1542 Francisco Coronado discovered two natural wonders: The Grand Canyon and enormous herds of buffalo.
The meaning of life is to find the meaning of life. Is it not? We all go through each day trying to figure out which road out the infinite amount of paths will lead us in a better direction where happiness is prominent and society is flawless. However, not every single human being is going to fit on that narrow, one-lane highway to success. Bad choices, accidents, fate, family matters, society, temptation, anger, rage, addiction, and loss of hope can all be deciding factors in opting to choose that wrong path to self-destruction. The adverse thing is, once you've traveled so far down the road, you get so discouraged that you feel like you can never turn back or make up for the "lost time."
What is the meaning of life? According to Chris McCandless living free and not conforming to the natural way of life is the meaning to life, as shown in the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Similar to Chris McCandless, Ralph Emerson believes that following your dreams and making your own trail is the meaning of life according to his short story “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Emerson. The purpose of man's existence is to avoid conformity and following one's own instincts and ideas.
In a universe so ginormous with an affluent abundance of billions of humans, ranging from billionaire toddler empresses of large corporations to elders surviving traumatizing events of the twentieth century, individuals tend to question their purpose on Earth. Unfortunately, not everyone will live to see dreams come true or will win a massive lottery prize or even extend their family’s generation. So, if not everyone changes the world in even the most minimal method, what is the point of one’s existence? Animals and plants serve a purpose contributing largely to the environment and the average person’s diet; but for humans, is there a purpose to life? If an individual is not happy nor believes they have a purpose, is the universal solution suicide?
the meaning of life truly is. For some people, their purpose in life is to have a well-paying job
My few years on this planet have been a bit confusing. I have learned of many aspects of life from which one can draw meaning, if indeed such meaning can be drawn. I have also learned that there can be no singular meaning of life to stand for us all, or even any one of us. What I have learned above all is that trying to put words to the meaning of life is a task of absolute absurdity. This is not to be confused with the idea that life has no meaning, for life certainly has meaning. However, there is no single meaning of life to be defined - life is different for us all. Therefore, rather than define life for an entire planet, I shall try to explain what life means as I perceive it, and why it means so.
In February of 1519, Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortés, landed with his fleet at Cozumel Mexico on the Yucatan coast. This devious, charming, and ruthless conquistador lead a band of just 500 European adventurers. Aztec emperor Moctezuma, the richest most powerful man in the Americas, ruler of 25 million people, has welcomed Cortés and his men in his palace. Their numbers were small, after all. How could they constitute as a threat when you have an army that is ten thousand times larger than the few hundred souls that they brought? This was a mistake that will change the fate of a continent. Though he wasn’t the first conquistador to land on these shores, he was the best armed. Cortes brought the most cutting-edge weaponry available, including canons. Having weapons like this with the addition of horses on the battlefield was a distinct physical and psychological advantage. Their key element to success in conquest, was their advanced weaponry and fine armor.