Reena Ranjit, kathmandu : It is often assumed that a look at our origins will lead us to the meaning of life . It certainly did not work out that way for Dr . Frankenstein’s creation . Desperate to know where he had come from , unlike us he discovered the awful truth. Yet what he found out did not reveal life’s meaning, it just upset him. Perhaps instead of answering the question of why we are here by looking backwards we should look forward . What future goal would make this life worth living ? The problem with working towards goals was identified by the philosopher of common sense , Aristotle. His argument was that we do many things for the sake of something else. We eat to live , work to pay the bills , study to pass exams and so on . But unless at least one action is done for it’s own sake , there is no point in doing any of them. Not everything can be a means to an end: there must be ends which are valuable in their own right .There is much that makes life precious enough to hold on to and savour. So what gives people’s lives value ? It might be relieving the suffering of other, helping one’s children build their futures, or overcoming a problem. But life is uncertain and we are often thrown off course. The basic answer to the question of life’s meaning is probably this: there are more reason to live rather than die , and they are to be found in the living of life itself.